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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 


James  E.  White 


A 

Life  Span  and  Reminiscences 


OF 


Railway  Mail  Service 


BY 

JAMES  E.  WHITE 

Ex-General  Superintendent  of  Railway  Mail  Service 


Published  by 

DEEMER  &  JAISOHN 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 


Elnteiecl  according  lo  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  Year  1910 

By 

JAMES  E.  WHITE 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


Copyright,  1910.  by  JAMES  E.  WHITE 
{All  Rights  Resenxd] 


i 


PREFACE 


In  the  late  Summer  of  1908  I  wrote  a  reminiscent  article  on  "The 
Railway  Mail  Service,"  which  was  published  in  the  September  issue 
of  "The  Raihvay  Post  Office."  This  article  was  prepared  in  response 
to  the  request  of  a  large  and  important  association  of  the  splendid  men 
who  had  served  with  me,  and  under  my  supervision,  during  part  or  all 
of  my  long  career  in  that  most  remarkable  branch  of  the  civil  service 
of  our  government. 

The  reminiscences  began  with  my  entry  into  the  service — March 
5,  186G — nineteen  months  after  the  inauguration  of  the  first  railway 
post  office,  and  when  the  whole  corps  of  its  employees,  railway  postal 
clerks,  route  agents,  mail  route  messengers,  and  local  agents,  num- 
bered only  703 ;  and  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  before  the  first  full 
railway  post  office  car  was  placed  in  service. 

As  I  wrote,  my  memory  awoke  and  presented  in  the  order  of  time, 
clear  recollections  of  events  with  which  I  was  connected  in  the  earliest 
years  of  the  improved  service  and  they  were  chronicled  so  that  those 
v»'ho  joined  the  devoted  corps  later  might  become  familiar  with  the 
details  of  its  inception,  inauguration  and  development ;  the  hardships 
and  disadvantages  under  which  the  work  was  performed ;  the  desperate 
struggle  preceding  its  firm  establishment,  and  the  gradual  breaking  of 
the  clouds  between  the  rifts  of  which  could  be  seen  the  coming  of  the 
magnificent  service  of  to-day. 

As  the  story  progressed,  the  educational  methods  employed  to 
strengthen  the  minds  and  memories  of  the  clerks,  to  increase  the  effi- 
ciency of  their  work  while  its  scope  was  enlarging,  and  its  character 
becoming  more  complexed,  the  system  of  discipline  instituted  to  insure 
obedience  of  orders,  instructions,  regulations  and  laws,  and  thus  gain 
the  confidence  and  support  of  the  public,  were  introduced  and  dis- 
cussed. 

The  strength  and  favorable  consideration  thus  obtained,  fostered 
and  advanced  the  work  the  service  was  created  to  perform ;  improved 
facilities  for  distribution,  storage,  and  dispatch  of  the  mails  were  fur- 


9.' 


O'-cc-J 


IV 

nished  more  readily  by  the  railway  companies,  and  the  frequency  of 
train  service  and  consequently  of  dispatch  of  mail  was  increased. 

The  salaries  of  the  clerks  serving  in  the  two  highest  classes  in  full 
railway  post  offices  had  been  raised  and  lowered  again ;  the  fight  for 
their  restoration,  and  for  traveling  expenses  for  chief  clerks,  was  on 
and  growing  more  vigorous  but  without  visible  effect  for  many  years, 
nevertheless  it  was  wearing  away  the  opposition  and  apathy  that  was 
predominant  in  the  law  making  power. 

As  I  wrote,  the  panorama  moving  before  my  mind  became  in- 
tensely interesting,  and  something  of  the  same  feeling  must  have 
touched  some  of  the  friends  who  read  the  reminiscent  articles  and 
urged  me  to  publish  them  in  book  form  when  completed.  This  I 
concluded  to  do  after  revising  what  I  had  written,  and  taking  uj)  and 
describing  to  the  best  of  my  ability  the  salient  features  of  the  admin- 
istrations of  the  nine  gentlemen  who  had  occupied  the  office  of  General 
Superintendent  and  the  one  who  is  at  the  head  of  the  service  at  present. 

This  has  been  done.  Reference  to  the  list  of  contents  will  show 
that  many  subjects  and  incidents,  covering  the  period  from  1863  to 
1909,  have  been  passed  upon  and  that  much  of  the  work  is  historical. 
I  believe  it  will  prove  interesting  and  valuable  not  only  to  my  late 
associates  and  co-workers  in  the  railway  mail  service,  but  to  railroad 
officials,  and  all  others  who  may  be  directly  or  indirectly  interested 
in  the  past  and  present  of  that  great  system,  which  has  become  a  bless- 
ing to  the  American  people,  individually  and  collectively. 

It  is  not  possible  to  present  in  this  book  portraits  of  all  who  are 
employed  in  the  service,  therefore,  there  will  be  exhibited  those  of 
some  who  have  grown  from  the  ranks  and  had  much  experience  in 
the  service,  and  are  in  full  sympathy  with  the  working  force  and 
anxious  to  secure  for  it  all  it  should  receive. 


CONTENTS. 


PagiJ. 

Inauguration  of  the  Railway  Post  Office   1-3 

Prospectus,  three  letters  by  Mr.  Armstrong   1-5 

Commission  of   Special   Agents,   Post   Office  Department,   1863, 

and  paper  read  before  it 2-3 

Civil   War  emergencies    6 

The  system  proposed   endorsed    6-7 

Letter,  Postmaster  General  Blair,  authorizing  a  test    7 

Test  commenced  on  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railway 7-8 

Scheme  building,  Express  Mails,  Night  Offices    9-10 

Ascertaining  quality  of  distribution  made 11-12 

George  B.  Armstrong  assigned  as  General  Superintendent 12 

George  S.  Bangs  appointed  to  the  Chicago  vacancy 12 

Divisional  organization  of  the  service   12-13 

Mr.  Armstrong's  plan  of  full  postal  car   167 

Mr.  Armstrong  resigned  May  3,  1871 ;  died  two  days  later  . .  13 

George  S.  Bangs  selected  to  succeed  him 13 

Growth  of  service    13 

Superintendents  of  Mails  in  distributing  post  offices 13-14 

New  York  and  Chicago  Fast  Mail  established  14 

New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg  Limited  Mail 14 

Civil   Service   reform    14 

Commission  appointed    14 

General  Grant's  Civil  Service  order  14 

Facing  Slip  introduced   ^ 

Case  examinations  ordered   

Schedule  of  connections 

Probationary  period    

The  Railway  Post  Office  system  attacked,  1873-1874 

Attack  met  successfully   

Mr.  Bangs  resigned  February  3,  1876 15 

Theodore  N.  Vail  appointed  to  succeed  him  15 

Congress  ordered  reduction  in  rate  of  pay  to  railroads 15 

The  New  York  and  Chicago  Fast  Mail  and  the   New  York, 

Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg  Limited  Mail  withdrawn 15 

Rearrangement  of  service  on  long  lines  to  meet  emergency  .  .  16 

First  experience  with  strikes,  1876   16-17 


15-71-77-95 


VI 

Pags 

Second  experience,  1877    17 

Fuller  instructions  as  to  Facing  Slips  and  Examination  Case  18 

Convention  of   Superintendents    16 

Statistics    18 

Mr.  Vail  resigns    18 

William  B.  Thom])son  appointed  to  the  vacancy   19 

Special    facility    fund    20 

Extension   of   service    20 

Quickening  of  schedules  on  Pennsylvania  Railroad — New  York 
to  Columbus,  Ohio ;  New  York  to  Baltimore,  Washington 
and  in  connection  with  the  Atlantic  Coast  Line  and  the  Plant 
System,  and  later  via  the  Southern  Railroad,  to  Richmond 

and  the  far  south   20 

Increase   of   mail ;   gradual   discontinuance   of   use   of   special 

facility    funds    21-22 

Re-establishment  of  New  York  and  Chicago  Fast  Mail 22 

Improved  schedule.  New  York  to  Springfield,  Mass    20 

Fast  Mail,  Chicago  and  Council  Blufifs,  Iowa,  C.  B.  &  Q.  R.  R.  23 

Fast  Mail,  Chicago  and  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  C.  M.  &  St.  Paul  R.  R.  23 

Decrease  in  rate  of  compensation  as  weight  increases 23 

Pay  readjusted  on  weights  taken  once  every  four  years ;  effect 

on  the  compensation   23-2-1 

Act  approved  July  31,  1882,  to  designate  and  classify  the  clerks  24 

The  Daily  Postal  Bulletin   25 

Statistics    25 

Resigned  December  31,  1884,  as  General  Superintendent    ...  26 

Appointed  Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General   25 

John  Jameson  appointed  to  the  vacancy   January  1,  1885 26 

President   Cleveland's   first   administration    26 

Postmaster  General  Vilas'  special  Notice  "Tenure  of  Ofifice".  .  27 

Extract  from  Mr.  Jameson's  first  Annual  Report   28-29 

Brotherhood   of    Postal    Clerks    28 

Seasons  of  unrest    26-27 

Recommends  increase  of  salary  of  Chief  Clerks  R.  M.  S 29 

Statistics    30-31 

Resigned  February  3,  1887   31 

Thomas  E.  Nash  appointed  to  the  vacancy  February  14,  1887  .  .  31 

Not  in  the  service  for  blood  31 

Strike  of  Brotherhood  of  Engineers  and  Firemen,  C.  B.  &  Q. 

R.  R 33 

Visited  Chicago  at  that  time 32 


vu 

Page 

Improved  the  service,  New  York  to  St.  Louis  33 

Established  Fast  Mail,  St.  Louis  to  Kansas  City,  Mo 33 

Statistics    33-34 

Resigned  June  3,  1888  34 

W.  L.  Bancroft  appointed  to  the  vacancy   June  5,  1888 34 

Two  additional  divisions  created — the  Tenth,  October  20,  1888 

—the  Eleventh,  November  10,  1888 36 

Resigned  March,  1889   34 

J.  Lowrie  Bell  appointed  to  the  vacancy  March  20,  1889 35 

Reinstatement  of  ofificers  and  clerks  removed  36 

Classified  Civil  Service  methods    36 

Case  examinations  given  new  impetus   38 

Supt.  Burt  offered  medals  for  best  records,  Fifth  Division  .  .  38 

Reception  and  banquet.  Fifth  Division  headquarters   38 

Postmaster  General  Wanamaker  presented  twelve  gold  medals  39 

Second  reception  and  banquet 136 

Fast  Mail,  Omaha  to  San  Francisco,  Green  River  to  Portland. 

Chicago  to  New  Orleans   39 

Statistics    39-42 

Appointed  Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General   42 

Resigned  as  General  Superintendent,  October  3,  1890   42 

James  E.  White  promoted  to  Gen'l  Superintendent  Oct.  4,  1890       42 

Divides  credit  for  success  with  all  faithful  employees   42 

Reminiscences,  Route  Agent,  Clerk,  Chief  Clerk,  Supt 43-60 

After  the  Chicago  fire  of  1871  60 

Promoted  to  Superintendent  Chicago  Division,  R.  M.  S 60 

Mails  distributed  in  Postal  Cars,  stationed  near  depots 61 

Postoffice  and  Office  of  Supt.  R.  M.  S.  located  in  car  barn.  ...       60 
Moved  to  the  Church,  corner  of  Wabash  Ave.  and  Harrison 

Street    63 

Campbell,  William  P 62-63-100 

Montgomery,  John  A 63 

Chesney,   Thomas    P 63-64-101 

Scheme   building    64 

Case  Examinations  inaugurated  in  Chicago  64 

Record  of  Errors  noted  on  Facing  Slips  kept 66 

Schedule  of  Mail  and  Express  Trains  at  Junctions,  etc 66 

Original  Fifth  Division    67 

Kerr,  James  G.,  Chief  Clerk,  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  1872   68 

McGrath,  Maurice  J.,  Supt.  of  Mail  68-236 

Stuart,  James  E.,  Clerk,  Chief  Clerk,  Post  Office  Inspector,  etc.       69 


Vlll 

Page 

Alexander,  Edward  W.,  Clerk,  Chief  Clerk,  etc 70 

Harlow,  J.  B.,  Clerk,  Chief  Clerk,  etc 70 

Smith,  J.  Stearns,  Clerk,  Assistant  Division  Supt 70 

Effort  to  have  the  Railway  Post  Office  system  discontinued.  .  71 
Attacked  in  Boston  Morning  Journal,  January  IG,  1874   ....72-76 

Reply  in  Western  Postal  Record  for  February,  1874 77-92 

Senate  Resolution,  January  30,  1874    93 

Letter  from  the  Postmaster  General  in  reply   93-95 

Comments  on  increased  cost  of  service 95-97 

Wabash  Avenue  Church   (P.  O.)   burned    97-99 

Troy,  Lewis  L.,  Clerk,  Chief  Clerk,  Assistant  Supt.,  Supt.  .  . .      lOQ 

Weirick,  C.  G.,  Examiner,  etc 101 

Three  new  Divisions  created,  October  9,  1874 101-102-103 

Honore  Building  (P.  O.)  burned   106 

Application  of  the  Powers  of  Man   109 

Eddy,  G.  S.,  accident  near  Blairstown,  Iowa   Ill 

Hughitt,  Marvin,  President  C.  &  N.  W.  R.  R 113 

-The  Fast  Mail,  1875,  New  York  and  Chicago 116 

The  Transcontinental  Fast  Alails,  Omaha  and  San  Francisco, 

Green  River  and  Portland   123-133 

History,  Tour  of  the  Pacific  Coast  States   133-136 

Rehabilitation,  Fifth  Division  medals    136-138 

Civil  Servce  Examination  in  detail   138-144 

Civil  Service  Regulations  governing  promotions   144-148 

Recognitions  of  worth,  increase  of  salaries,  etc 148-150 

Casualties  showing  the  hazards  of  the  service 150-155 

Superannuation   Act    155-156 

The  Railway  Mail  Service  Relief  Fund 158 

Provision  in  case  of  injury   156-161 

Postal   Car   Construction    161-181 

Special  Service,  Gold  Train    181-197 

Obstructing  Trains  carrying  mail    197-212 

Record  of  mail  in  transit 212-215 

List  of  Exchange  Pouches  and  Shortage  Slips 215-219 

Residence  upon  the  line  to  which  assigned 219-220 

Protection  of  clerks  while  in  the  discharge  of  duties   220-222 

Electric  and  cable  car  lines   (R.  P.  O.)    222-226 

City  distribution  in  Railway  Post  Offices   226-235 

Primary  separation  of  second-class  matter,  and  separating 

scheme  for  publishing  houses    235-243 

Spanish-American  War,  Cuba,  Philippines,  and  Porto  Rico.  .243-254 


f 


IX 

Page 

The  story  of  the  upbuilding  of  the  R.  M.  S 254-255-256 

Resigned  to  take  effect  February  4,  1907    256-257 

Statistics    257-258 

Alexander  Grant  promoted  to  the  vacancy 258 

Service   growing   steadily    260 

Facilities  for  the  transaction  of  business  improved 260 

Two  additional  Divisions  created    260 

Many  additional  Chief  Clerks  made    260 

Elimination  of  old  and  unsatisfactory  cars   261 

Cars  reported  in  bad  condition  to  be  inspected   261 

Handling  of  registered  matter  simplified   261 

Clerks  Mailing  Division  Post  Offices  to  be  examined   261 

Storage  cars  pass  from  depot  to  depot,  Chicago 261 

Increase   in    salaries    263 

Schedules  of  important  mail  trains  improved 263 

Travel   allowance  urged    263 

Civil  Service  Retirement  Idea  growing 363-264 

Statistics,  including  1909    263-264 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Portrait  of  James  E.  White   Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

Portrait  of  George  B.  Armstrong   1 

Portrait  of  George  S.  Bangs   13 

Portrait  of  Theodore  N.  Vail   15 

Portrait  of  WilHam  B.  Thompson 19 

Portrait  of  John  Jameson 2'3 

Portrait  of  Thomas  E.  Nash   31 

Portrait  of  W.  L.  Bancroft   3 1 

Portrait  of  J.   Lowrie  Bell   35 

Portrait  of  James  E.  White  42 

Portrait  of  Alexander  Grant    258 

The  Examination  Case    51 

Portrait  of  William   P.   Campbell    G2 

Original  Schedule  of  Mail  and  Express  Trains  at  Junctions 65 

Portrait  of  Edward  J.  Ryan    103 

The  New  York  and  Chicago  Fast  Mail  (on  the  New  York  Central 

system )    116 

Portrait  of  E.  L.  West   121 

The  interior  of  a  car  arranged  for  paper  distribution 129 

Portrait  of  A.  H.  Stephens 133 

Portrait  of  Charles   Rager    137 

Portrait  of  S.  M.  Gaines   144 

Picture  of  the  Danville,  Virginia,  disaster 150 

Portrait  of  Charles  W.  Vickery 161 

Picture  of  the  first  full  Postal  Car  built 167 

Portrait  of  Victor  J.   Bradley    176 

The  New  York  and  St.  Louis  Fast  Mail   (on  the  Pennsylvania 

system)    179 

Portrait  of  Norman  Perkins   191 

Portrait  of  George  W.   Pepper   197 

Portrait  of  Still  P.  Taft  223 

Portrait  of  Lewis  L.  Troy   230 

Portrait  of  Richard  C.  Jackson   237 

Portrait  of  Lynch   M.  Terrell    246 

Portrait  of  Frank  W.  Vaille    249 

Portrait  of  H.  M.  Robinson   253 

Portrait  of  John  W.  Hollyday 207 


Hon.  George  B.  Armstrong 

Founder  of  the  Railwav  Post  Office 


HISTORY 

OF 

THE   INAUGURATION   OF  THE 
RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE 


The  railway  post  ofifice,  as  distinguished  from  that  portion  of  the 
railway  mail  service  equipped  with  route  agents,  mail  route  messen- 
gers, and  local  agents  prior  toi  August  1,  1882,  first  became  a  factor 
in  the  operations  of  the  Post  Office  Department  August  38,  1864,  about 
nine  months  before  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  Up  to  that  date  it  was 
an  outline  or  skeleton  of  a  system,  having  a  home  in  the  mind  of  Mr, 
Geo.  B.  Armstrong,  its  founder,  and  expression  in  his  letters  of  May 
10  and  14,  and  June  10,  1864,  which  constituted  the  introductory 
prospectus  he  forwarded  to  the  Postmaster  General  through  Mr. 
Zevely,  his  Third  Assistant. 

This  prospectus  represented  ten  years'  experience  as  the  super- 
visory officer  of  one  of  the  most  important  distributing  post  offices  on 
this  continent,  during  which  he  discovered  the  weak  spot  in  our  postal 
establishment,  and  thought  out  a  system  capable  of  eliminating  it  when 
applied  and  developed  by  trained  officers  and  employees.  In  the 
years  that  have  passed  since  those  historic  days  that  system  has  been 
applied  and  developed,  the  skeleton  has  become  robust  and  vigorous, 
mentally  and  physically,  and  because  of  the  great  service  it  has  ren- 
dered the  commercial,  professional  and  social  worlds,  is  clothed  with 
the  benedictions  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men. 

Many  of  the  fundamental  principles  laid  down  by  the  author  of 
that  prospectus  are  as  essentially  true  now  as  they  were  then,  which 
shows  that  he  had  pondered  the  subject  until  he  became  satisfied  that 
the  scheme  had  in  it  all  the  elements  of  success ;  nevertheless,  there  is 
in  his  letter  of  May  10,  1864,  a  feeling  of  doubt  as  to  the  possibility 
of  introducing  the  new  service  in  its  entirety,  in  view  of  the  opposi- 
tion it  would  likely  encounter  from  those  wedded  to  the  old  system ; 


2 

because  of  its  emoluments  and  political  power;  therefore,  he  counseled 
gradual  change  in  this  language : 

"Although  it  would  doubtless  be  difficult  to  a  certain  degree  to 
introduce  a  system  under  the  present  precarious  tenure  of  office,  which 
v/ould  at  once  violently  revolutionize  the  order  of  things,  yet  such 
changes  may  be  made  as  would  gradually,  yet  effectually,  accomplish 
the  purpose,  retaining  so  much  of  the  present  system  as  would  not 
bring  improvements  into  too  sudden  conflict  with  long  habit  and 
practice.       *       *       *       * 

"Certainty  and  celerity  in  the  transmission  of  letters  are  primary 
considerations.  No  postal  system  may  be  regarded  as  perfect  that 
does  not  give  to  the  whole  public  the  largest  possible  facilities  in  ex- 
tent and  frequency  of  communication  between  all  important  places, 
and  rapid,  frequent  local  delivery.  *  *  *  ^  fj^g  working 
out  of  this  reformation  in  the  service  is  second  in  universal  interest  to 
no  other  measure  touching  the  welfare  of  the  public  at  large.  This 
final  result  may  be  attained  by  wise  planning  and  patient,  persistent 
effort ;  beginning  the  reform  with  the  simplest  changes,  for  the  reason 
hereinbefore  named,  and  gradually  introducing  the  more  radical  im- 
provements till  the  end  is  accomplished." 

The  founder  seems  to  have  had  a  premonition  that  the  new  service, 
if  launched,  would  pass  through  a  stormy  period  before  its  enemies 
would  be  overthrown,  and  the  people  and  Congress  become  convinced 
that  it,  and  it  alone,  of  the  proposed  so-called  advanced  methods  of 
handling  the  mail,  was  the  only  one  capable  of  keeping  pace  with  the 
growth  and  progress  of  the  country;  that  without  it  prosperity  would 
be  retarded,  because  intercommunication  would  be  sluggish,  less  fre- 
quent, uncertain  and  incorrect;  in  short  he  seems  to  have  seen  the 
gathering  of  a  storm,  such  as  broke  over  the  service  in  1873  and  1874, 
and  from  which  it  emerged  adjudged  by  the  court  of  public  opinion 
and  the  highest  legislative  tribunal  in  the  land  the  most  expeditious, 
efficient,  and  economical  system  of  distribution,  dispatch  and  supply. 
It  is  probable  that  his  familiarity  with  the  methods  in  vogue  in  dis- 
tributing post  offices  then  caused  this  anxiety  or  apprehension.  That 
it  was  not  baseless  is  shown  in  the  proceedings  of  the  commission  of 
special  agents  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  which  met  in  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  on  June  21:  and  25,  1863,  by  order  of  the  Postmaster  General, 
to  consider  the  conditions  of  this  class  of  offices,  especially  with  refer- 
ence to  the  distribution  of  letter  mail,  which  had  become  a  menace  to 
the  successful  transaction  of  public  and  private  business,  to  that  social 
tranquillity  essential  to  peaceful  homes,  and  cheerful  communities,  on 


account  of  the  intolerable  delays  resulting  from  the  accumulation  of 
this  class  of  matter  therein,  and  lack  of  enterprise  and  system  in 
handling  it.  A  paper  was  read  before  this  commission,  of  which  the 
following  is  an  extract: 

"The  emoluments  derived  by  postmasters  at  distributing  offices 
consist  of  a  commission  on  the  letters  distributed.  Originally  the 
commission  was  5  per  cent,  on  letter  postage  paid  and  unpaid.  This 
was  afterwards  increased  by  law  to  7  per  cent.,  and  then  to  12^  per 
cent.,  at  which  it  now  stands.  It  is  obviously  to  the  interest  of  those 
having  charge  of  such  offices  to  increase  business  of  this  kind  to  the 
utmost,  and  though  expressly  forbidden  by  the  Department  to  invite 
distribution  from  its  legitimate  channel,  it  has  often  been  done,  and  it 
is  believed  that  the  post  office  revenue  has  in  this  manner  been  largely 
defrauded.  Letters  have  been  subjected  to  so  many  distributions  as 
entirely  to  absorb  the  postage  charged  upon  them ;  and  in  some  cases 
the  distribution  commission  of  a  postmaster  has  largely  exceeded  the 
whole  proceeds  of  his  office  and  required  a  balance  to  be  paid  him 
quarterly  from  other  sources.  Even  when  no  abuse  is  practiced  and 
letters  are  subjected  to  only  the  necessary  and  proper  distribution,  a 
large  portion  of  the  correspondence  of  the  country  pays  an  unnecessary 
tax  of  25  per  cent.,  besides  the  regular  commission  of  40,  50,  or  60 
per  cent.,  to  which  the  mailing  office  is  entitled.  For  instance,  a  hun- 
dred letters  on  which  the  postage  is  $3.00,  originating  in  small  offices 
in  Ohio  and  west  of  Pittsburg,  and  destined  for  New  England,  are 
sent  to  Pittsburg  for  distribution  and  there  subjected  to  a  commission 
of  12-J  per  cent. ;  from  Pittsburg  they  are  sent  to  New  York  or  Boston 
and  there  charged  with  a  second  commission  of  12^  per  cent.,  and  then 
forwarded  to  destination.  Assuming  the  average  commission  taken 
at  the  mailing  to  be  50  per  cent.,  this  three  dollars'  worth  of  letters 
pays  a  tax  of  75  per  cent,  in  the  shape  of  commissions  while  passing 
through  the  mail,  or  $2.25  out  of  $3.00." 

Some  of  the  discoveries  of  the  commission,  which  did  not  reflect 
credit  upon  the  methods  and  practices  of  the  distributing  post  offices, 
but  the  contrary,  were  made  public  either  through  the  Department  or 
otherwise,  and  as  most  of  those  who  clung  to  the  old  system  were  not 
as  obtuse  as  they  were  obstinate,  they  read  the  signs  and  prepared  to 
oppose  the  introduction  of  any  change  likely  to  lessen  their  emoluments 
and  influence  socially  and  politically.  Therefore,  it  is  not  strange  that 
the  founder  of  the  system  should  have  felt  some  trepidation  when 
drawing  up  his  prospectus  for  the  consideration  of  the  Postmaster 
General  and  his  advisers.  Search  may  be  made  through  all  of  his 
subsequent  writings  and  official  acts  with  full  confidence  that  no  mis- 


givings,  as  to  the  soundness  of  the  plan  or  of  its  success  when  put  to 
the  test;  will  be  found — of  that  he  had  no  doubt. 

On  May  14,  1864,  he  forwarded  the  second  letter  of  the  series, 
composing  the  prospectus,  to  the  Postmaster  General  through  Mr. 
Zevely ;  from  it  the  following  extract  is  given,  because  it  opens  his 
scheme  more  fully — shows  what  he  expects  to  accomplish  and  how : 

"The  classification  of  offices  above  given  is  for  the  twofold  pur- 
pose of  arranging  a  system  of  mailing,  combining  more  comprehensive- 
ness and  simplicity  than  the  present  one  and  thereby  to  attain  greater 
accuracy  in  the  dispatch  of  letters,  and  in  the  case  of  distributing 
offices  the  design  in  the  classification  is  so  to  relieve  them  of  the  vast 
amount  of  letters  now  necessarily  thrown  upon  them  under  the  present 
system  as  to  enable  them,  together  with  the  assorting  offices  in  the 
classification  given,  to  make  more  extended  and  frequent  interchange 
of  mail  with  other  offices  of  the  same  classification,  both  for  local 
delivery  and  distribution.  But  the  main  feature  of  the  plan,  which 
after  its  introduction  and  final  adaptation  to  the  service  would  un- 
doubtedly lead  to  the  most  important  results,  is  the  system  of  railway 
distribution.  To  carry  out  the  true  theory  of  postal  service  there 
should  be  no  interruption  in  the  transit  of  letters  in  the  mail  and 
therefore,  as  little  complication  in  the  internal  machinery  of  a  postal 
system  as  possible,  to  the  end  that  letters  deposited  in  a  post  office  at 
the  last  moment  of  the  departure  of  the  mails  from  the  office  for  near 
or  distant  places  should  travel  with  the  same  uninterrupted  speed  and 
certainty  as  passengers  to  their  places  of  destination  as  often  as  con- 
tracts with  the  Department  for  the  transportation  of  the  mails  permit. 
It  is  well  known  to  the  public  that  passengers  traveling  over  railroad 
routes  generally  reach  a  given  point  in  advance  of  letters,  when  to  that 
given  point  letters  must  pass,  under  the  present  system,  through  a 
distributing  office;  and  when  letters  are  subjected  to  a  distributing 
process  in  more  than  one  distributing  office,  as  is  largely  the  case  now, 
the  tardiness  of  a  letter's  progress  toward  its  place  of  destination  is 
proportionately  increased.  But  a  general  system  of  railway  distribu- 
tion obviates  this  difficulty.  The  work  being  done  while  the  cars  are  in 
motion,  and  transfers  of  mails  made  from  route  to  route  and  for  local 
deliveries  on  the  way  as  they  are  reached,  letters  attain  the  same 
celerity  in  transit  as  persons  making  direct  connections.  This  is  ob- 
vious ;  but  to  reach  this  perfection  would  necessarily  be  a  work  of 
lime.  The  plan  I  now  submit  looks  to  that  end  in  time ;  and  if  it  be 
proved  by  trial  to  be  adapted  to  the  service  in  a  new  form,  the  time 
may  not  be  distant.       *       *       *       * 


"In  passing,  however,  to  this  final  improvement  I  remark  that 
the  classification  of  offices  above  given  would  be  so  far  changed  as  to 
abolish  the  distinction  between  distributing  and  assorting  offices,  re- 
ducing the  former  to  the  character  with  the  simple  functions  of  the 
latter.  The  other  question  of  frequent  local  deliveries  in  cities  and 
towns  by  carriers  I  will  not  touch  upon  only  so  far  as  to  say  that  the 
two  questions  are  correlative ;  and  that  the  success  of  one  depends 
upon  the  perfection  and  thoroughness  of  the  other.  To  carry  out 
the  design,  therefore,  each  railroad  corporation  under  contract  with 
the  Post  Office  Department,  or  otherwise,  employed  in  transporting 
the  mails  shall  furnish  for  the  exclusive  use  and  occupancy  of  the 
railway  clerks  a  sufficient  number  of  cars  suitable  in  dimensions  and 
conveniences  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  for  the  proper  discharge 
of  distributing  and  other  duties ;  these  cars,  or  railway  post  offices,  to 
be  under  the  direction  and  control  of  the  Department  while  the  corpo- 
ration is  engaged  in  carrying  the  mail." 

The  letters  of  May  10  and  14,  1864,  announced  the  primary  prin- 
ciples which  served  as  the  groundwork  of  the  system ;  they  were  not 
proclaimed  publicly  by  any  one  before  the  dates  named,  and  they  have 
not  been  modified  since ;  upon  them  the  whole  superstructure  has  been 
built ;  the  methods  employed,  the  details  of  the  work  of  development 
were  beyond  his  ken,  undoubtedly,  for  they  have  unfolded  gradually, 
each  step  in  advance  suggesting  the  succeeding  one,  and  the  wonder- 
ful growth  made  must  be  counted  the  product  of  many  minds.  The 
letter  of  June  10,  1864,  and  parts  of  the  others  not  quoted,  enter  more 
largely  into  the  details  incident  to  the  classification  of  post  offices,  and 
the  method  of  making  up  and  post-billing  mails. 

This  last  had  been  in  existence  many  years,  was  cumbersome, 
expensive,  and  was  discontinued  in  1873,  in  favor  of  a  simpler,  more 
efficacious,  and  economical  method,  known  as  the  "Postage  Due 
Stamp." 

See  section  513,  P.  L.  &  R.,  which  reads : 

"No  mail  matter  shall  be  delivered  until  the  postage  due  thereon 
has  been  paid  (R.  S.  No.  3900).  That  all  mail  matter  of  the  first 
class  upon  which  one  full  rate  of  postage  has  been  prepaid  shall  be 
forwarded  to  its  destination,  charged  with  the  unpaid  rate,  to  be  col- 
lected on  delivery ;  but  postmasters  before  delivering  the  same,  or  any 
article  of  mail  matter  upon  which  prepayment  in  full  has  not  been 
made,  shall  affix  or  cause  to  be  affixed  and  canceled,  as  ordinary 
stamps  are  canceled,  one  or  more  stamps  equivalent  in  value  to  the 
amount  of  postage  due  on  such  article  of  mail  matter,  which  stamp 


shall  be  of  such  special  design  and  denomination  as  the  Postmaster 
General  may  prescribe,  and  which  shall  in  no  case  be  sold  by  any 
postmaster  nor  be  received  by  him  in  prepayment  of  postage." 

One  who  reads  these  letters  will  understand,  if  he  never  did 
before,  that  when  a  man  of  a  studious  and  thoughtful  nature,  with  a 
v»^ell  trained  and  resourceful  mind^,  is  engaged  in  a  special  line  of  busi- 
ness and  reaches  a  point  in  the  transaction  of  the  same  where  the 
methods  previously  employed  with  reasonable  success  fail  to  meet 
demands,  he  will  instinctively  commence  making  an  analytical  ex- 
amination of  the  whole  machinery  to  discover  the  defects,  and  the 
remedy. 

The  distributing  post  office  system  reached  that  point  during  the 
Civil  War ;  it  had  been  anaemic  for  years,  but  did  fairly  well  when 
there  were  but  23,G16  miles  of  railway,  and  about  one  third  of  our 
present  population  to  supply ;  no  rapid  development  of  our  resources — 
the  extent  of  which  was  not  comprehended,  because  it  had  not  been 
explored — and  no  great  national  emergency  to  provide  for;  but  when 
all  these  conditions  were  changed,  and  mail  began  to  pile  up  in  most  of 
these  offices,  and  to  lie  there  for  weeks,  awaiting  distribution,  it  was 
unbearable  and  caused  protests  to  pour  in  upon  the  President,  his 
cabinet  and  the  press,  from  all  quarters.  It  would  have  been  singu- 
lar, under  these  circumstances,  if  an  officer  of  one  of  the  post  offices 
most  affected  by  these  changes,  having  the  experience,  capacity,  and 
energy  for  which  Mr.  Armstrong  was  noted,  had  not  anticipated  what 
happened  long  before  it  reached  its  greatest  magnitude,  and  prepared 
a  scheme  to  meet  the  emergency.  This  is  just  what  he  felt  and  did. 
We  are  told  that  he  sounded  the  keynote  to  the  situation  and  the 
solution  of  the  whole  problem  when  he  remarked  to  Mr.  Francis  A. 
Eastman  of  The  Chicago  Times  in  1861 : 

"I  tell  you,  we  do  not  yet  know  what  to  do  with  our  post  offices. 
We  have  but  a  village  here,  compared  to  the  city  we  shall  have.  This 
vast  western  country  is  still  almost  empty  of  settlers,  and  even  so,  the 
mails  that  are  hourly  dumped  into  the  post  office  fill  up  the  entire 
space  and  paralyze  the  men.  Unless  something  is  done  towards  relief, 
the  post  office  system  will  break  down  of  its  own  weight." 

And  in  1868,  when  he  said  to  the  same  gentleman : 

"I  am  going  to  put  the  post  office  on  wheels." 

He  made  substantially  the  same  remark  to  Colonel  Carr  of  Gales- 
burg,  111. ;  to  Mr.  George  S.  Bangs  of  Aurora,  111. ;  Mr.  Fernando 
Jones  of  Chicago,  111. ;  Hon.  E.  W.  Keyes  of  Madison,  Wis. ;  Charles 
R.  Harrison  of  the  same  state;  and  to  many  other  gentlemen  of  na- 
tional reputation,  all  of  whom  became  earnest  supporters  and  advocates 


of  his  plan.  Strong  indorsements  were  forwarded  to  Washington, 
which  with  the  clear  statement  in  the  prospectus  evidently  appealed 
to  the  Postmaster  General,  for  on  July  1,  1864,  he  addressed  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Armstrong,  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy : 

Post  Office  Department,  July  1,  1864. 

Sir  :  You  are  authorized  to  test  by  actual  experience,  upon  such 
railroad  route  or  routes  as  you  may  select  at  Chicago,  the  plans  pro- 
posed by  you  for  simplifying  the  mail  service. 

You  will  arrange  with  railway  companies  to  furnish  suitable 
cars  for  traveling  post  offices ;  designate  "head  offices,"  with  their 
dependent  offices ;  prepare  forms  of  blanks  and  instructions  for  all 
such  offices,  and  those  on  the  railroad  not  "head  offices;"  also  for 
clerks  of  traveling  post  offices. 

To  aid  you  in  this  work,  you  may  select  some  suitable  route  agent, 
whose  place  can  be  supplied  by  a  substitute,  at  the  expense  of  this 
Department. 

When  your  arrangements  are  complete,  you  will  report  them  in 
full. 

(Signed)         M.  Blair, 

George  B.  Armstrong,  Chicago,  111.  Postmaster  General. 

Upon  receipt  of  this  authority  Mr.  Armstrong  and  the  management 
of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  railroad  arranged  to  test  his  plan 
upon  the  Galena  division  of  that  line.  The  company  remodeled  some 
old  cars,  after  drawings  furnished  by  him,  and  as  soon  as  these  came 
from  the  shops  Percy  A.  Leonard  and  James  Converse  of  the  "east 
room,"  of  the  Chicago  post  office,  because  of  their  familiarity  with  the 
Eastern  distribution,  were  detailed  to  take  charge  of  them,  and  to  run 
between  Chicago,  111.,  and  Clinton,  Iowa;  the  route  agents  who  were 
on  this  route  became  their  assistants.  Everything  being  ready,  on 
the  28th  of  August,  1864,  Mr.  Leonard  and  Mr.  Bradley  started  from 
Chicago  on  the  initial  trip  of  this  remarkable  service;  the  originator 
of  the  system,  with  a  few  commercial  and  newspaper  acquaintances, 
and  some  personal  friends,  accompanied  these  gentlemen  on  that 
occasion ;  not  all  of  these  guests  returned  from  the  trip  favorably 
impressed  with  the  scheme ;  many  who  long  afterward  were  visitors 
in  railway  post  offices  better  equipped,  more  skilled  and  efifective  than 
this  one  was,  did  not  enthuse  over  its  work,  or  possibilities ;  it  was 
beyond  their  comprehension,  that  was  all,  just  as  it  was  beyond  that 
of  many  who  entered  the  service  but  did  not  survive  the  tests  of 
adaptability  and  fitness.  The  trips  made  over  this  route  regularly 
thereafter  soon  demonstrated,  to  those  upon  whose  good  opinion  the 


8 

introduction  and  fair  trial  of  the  system  depended,  that  it  embraced 
all  the  elements  of  success,  but  that  like  all  innovations  of  the  higher 
order  put  in  operation  by  the  Government  to  ameliorate  the  condition 
of  its  people,  education  of  a  special  character,  financial  and  the  strong- 
est executive  support,  perseverance,  faith  and  time  were  necessary  to 
Its  development.  A  month  and  more  after  this  initial  trip,  the  New 
York  and  Washington  railway  post  ofifice  was  introduced  and  ran  on 
the  rails  of  the  P.,  W.  &  B.  R.  R.,  the  B.  &  O.  R.  R.  and  the  Camden 
&  Amboy  R.  R.  companies — now  known  as  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
Company — time,  twelve  hours,  now  reduced  one-half.  Then  followed 
the  Chicago,  111.,  &  Davenport,  Iowa,  on  the  C.  R.  I.  &  P.  R.  R. ;  the 
Chicago  &  Ouincy,  111.,  on  the  C.  B.  &  O.  R.  R. ;  the  Chicago,  III,  & 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  on  the  Chicago  &  Alton  R.  R. ;  the  Chicago  &  Centralia, 
111.,  on  the  Illinois  Central  R.  R. ;  the  Clinton  &  Boone,  Iowa,  Chicago 
&  Northwestern  R.  R. ;  Quincy,  III,  &  Hannibal,  Mo.,  Hannibal  & 
St.  Joseph  R.  R.,  in  the  west ;  the  last  two  were  introduced  in  the  fall 
of  1866.  Following  the  New  York  &  Washington  R.  P.  O.  came  early 
in  1865,  the  New  York  &  Dunkirk,  New  York  &  Erie  R.  R.  and  the 
Philadelphia  &  Pittsburg — Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  in  the 
east.  No  more  were  introduced  there  until  1867.  In  fact  the  new 
service  east  seemed  to  move  with  halting  and  uncertain  steps  for  a 
considerable  time,  after  these  lines  were  opened  to  it,  due  to  the 
opposition  it  met  with  from  without  and  within ;  the  difficulty 
experienced  in  securing  exceedingly  moderate  accommodation  for 
it  on  the  desirable  railway  lines,  and  the  active  hostility  of  the 
heads  of  the  great  distributing  offices  who,  instead  of  welcoming 
it  with  open  hands,  encouraging  words,  and  a  "God  speed,"  antag- 
onized it,  sought  to  array  public  and  legislative  sentiment  against  it, 
to  destroy  it  in  its  swaddling  clothes.  Not  so  in  the  west.  There  a 
different  spirit  prevailed ;  the  railway  managers  were  responsive  to 
reason,  and  furnished  such  facilities  as  were  needed  for  the  new  ser- 
vice as  rapidly  as  requested ;  nothing  extravagant  or  excessive  was 
asked  for,  as  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  for  more  than  three  years  after 
its  introduction  it  was  housed  in  apartments  of  cars  wholly.  The  fact 
that  it  was  regarded  as  an  experiment  was  not  lost  sight  of 
for  a  moment,  consequently  all  were  on  their  mettle.  The  distributing 
offices  were  friendly  also — no  jealousies  existed — the  two  branches 
of  the  postal  service  worked  in  harmony;  besides,  the  service  there 
was  under  the  immediate  direction  and  supervision  of  the  author  of 
the  system,  and  the  clerks  assigned  in  charge  of  these  first  railway 
post  offices  were  experts  detailed  from  the  Chicago  post  office,  of 
which  he  was  the  assistant  postmaster,  all  known  to  him  personally. 


Thus  the  conditions  were  more  favorable  than  in  the  east,  and  natur- 
ally the  service  moved  from  the  outset  with  less  friction,  with  more 
freedom  and  confidence,  which  insured  it  greater  vigor  and  progress. 
However,  the  service  in  the  east  passed  through  this  crucial  period  and 
in  18G7  many  additional  railway  post  offices  were  inaugurated  in  that 
section,  New  England,  the  south  and  west ;  but  the  greatest  extension 
in  mileage,  for  those  days,  occurred  during  the  period  from  18(58  to 
1870  inclusive. 

Until  1868  nothing  official  or  systematic  was  done  toward  building 
schemes  of  distribution  to  guide  railway  post  offices  in  the  work  they 
were  gradually  assuming.  That  feature  of  the  service,  which  long 
since  became  almost  a  science,  studied  as  diligently  and  intelligently 
as  the  astronomer  studies  the  heavens  to  locate  the  planets  and  the 
stars,  was  not  organized  then  or  subject  to  supervision;  each  clerk 
provided  himself  with  such  lists  of  distribution  as  he  used  and  these 
were  the  essence  of  information  obtained  from  other  clerks,  from 
postmasters,  contractors,  stage  drivers  and  county  and  state  maps — an 
amalgam  not  always  reliable  because  too  large  a  per  cent,  of  it  was 
tradition — nevertheless,  in  an  age  when  post  route  maps,  star  route 
lettings  and  other  reliable  official  helps  were  not  available,  it  was  the 
best  that  could  be  done.  These  lists  were  devoted  quite  largely  to  offices 
supplied  by  lines  connecting  at  junctions  and  head  and  terminal  offices, 
as  distinguished  from  those  purely  local  to  the  line,  and  contributed 
to  a  more  extended  knowledge  of  distribution ;  but  the  greater  portion 
of  the  mail,  not  more  or  less  local  in  character,  continued  to  be  massed 
on  distributing  offices,  though  fair  headway  was  being  made  in  the 
distribution  of  more  remote  states  when  not  too  complicated ;  as,  for 
instance,  we  made  such  a  distribution  of  Massachusetts  and  the  other 
New  England  states  as  avoided  delay  in  Chicago  for  that  purpose,  be- 
cause it  was  simple.    The  scheme  of  Massachusetts  was : 

Massachusetts  to  Boston.     D.  P.  O. 

Except  Berkshire,  Franklin,  Hampden,  Hampshire  and  Wor- 
cester counties  to  the  Boston  &  Albany  railway  post  office. 

New  Hampshire  was  Boston.     D.  P.  O. 

Except  Cheshire,  Grafton  and  Sullivan  counties  to  the  Boston 
&  Albany  railway  post  office. 

Danbury  and  South  Danbury,  of  Merrimack  county,  same. 

The  offices  in  these  counties  were  listed  for  reference  until  mem- 
orized. 

The  distribution  of  the  other  New  England  states  was  as  simple. 
The  first  official  scheme  used  in  railway  post  offices  was  printed  this 


10 

year  and  issued  to  lines  with  headquarters  in  Chicago ;  it  was  small, 
simple  and  just  suited  to  the  times  and  conditions.  "Express  Mails" 
also  became  an  important  feature  of  the  service  during  this  year,  for 
by  means  of  these  offices  located  not  more  than  twelve  hours  from 
Chicago,  north,  south,  east  or  west  from  the  meeting  point  of  railway 
post  office  trains,  on  lines  provided  with  double  train  service  but 
single  railway  post  office  service,  were  given  twice  daily  supply,  and 
the  most  important  offices,  and  their  dependent  offices,  between  Chi- 
cago and  the  meeting  points  were  also  given  a  double  supply,  by  means 
of  "night  pouches"  made  up  in  the  Chicago  office  and,  as  with  "express 
mails,"  dispatched  by  night  trains  in  care  of  baggage  men,  who  deliv- 
ered them  as  per  the  address  on  the  pouch  labels.  The  railway  post 
offices  centering  at  Chicago  made  up  packages  for  these  pouches,  threw 
them  into  the  Chicago  office,  which  pouched  them,  as  per  their  address, 
with  similar  packages  made  up  in  that  office.  The  "express  mail"  was 
carried  past  the  meeting  point  to  the  terminal,  usually,  where  it  was 
transferred  to  the  inward  bound  railway  post  office,  by  which  it  was 
distributed  and  delivered  from  one  to  six  and,  in  rare  cases,  twelve 
hours  earlier  than  if  held  for  the  next  regular  outbound  railway  post 
office.  This  was  not  understood  at  first,  and,  as  was  quite  natural, 
complaints  were  made  that  this  mail  was  carried  past  destination  and 
delayed  in  delivery. 

In  the  book  of  schemes,  which  I  have  before  me  now  and  which  I 
printed  with  pen  and  ink  in  1868  and  1869,  I  find  many  of  these 
"express  mail"  lists  and  "night  offices,"  also  general  and  standpoint 
schemes — some  by  offices,  and  some  county  and  exception.  I  assure 
you  they  bring  to  my  mind  very  vividly  those  early  days,  and  the  dis- 
advantages under  which  we  performed  our  duties,  as  compared  with 
the  excellence  of  the  fittings,  the  accuracy  of  the  guides,  and  the  order 
and  system  which  surround  and  help  the  clerks  of  to-day  in  their  work, 
and  which  prevail  throughout  our  whole  postal  establishment,  a  con- 
dition due  largely,  unquestionably,  to  the  new  life,  progressive  ideas, 
and  energy  brought  into  it  by  the  railway  post  office,  which  through  a 
cumulative  process  of  infection  and  transfusion  leavened  the  whole. 
Notwithstanding  these  advantages,  I  believe  I  was  never  happier  in 
my  life,  for  I  soon  came  to  love  the  occupation,  the  research  and  study, 
the  exhilarating  movement  of  the  train,  the  rhythmical  sound  of  the 
wheels  as  they  revolved  quickly  and  smoothly  over  the  rails  under  my 
feet,  the  quietude  and  absorption  of  the  employment  after  the  excite- 
ment, anxiety,  storm  and  crash,  and  woe  and  mortality  of  more  than 
four  years  of  war. 


11 

The  year  18G8  also  witnessed  the  first  official  efifort  to  ascertain 
the  quality  of  the  distribution  made  by  the  clerks  centering  at  Chicago. 
To  this  end  the  originator  of  the  service  caused  mails  made  up  in  rail- 
v/ay  post  offices,  awaiting  dispatch  from  Chicago,  to  be  taken  to  his 
office  and  examined  critically  by  his  able  secretary,  Mr.  William  P. 
Campbell,  and  others  of  the  service,  whose  efficiency  had  been  estab- 
lished. The  fact  that  this  was  being  done  was  not  trumpeted  abroad ; 
otherwise,  as  a  means  of  ascertaining  who  were  conscientious  workers, 
it  would  have  been  abortive.  As  it  was,  the  indolent  and  incompe- 
tent were  caught  "red  handed"  and  those  believed  to  be  beyond  refor- 
mation were  separated  from  the  service.  This  good  work  was  con- 
tinued with  beneficial  results  into  1869,  when  the  facing  slip,  which 
proved  one  of  the  most  helpful  factors  in  advancing  the  service  in 
efficiency,  was  introduced. 

This  slip  performs  its  mission  by  bearing  upon  its  back,  to  the 
officers  in  charge  of  the  distributers,  a  statement  of  the  quality  of  the 
work  done  on  each  trip,  if  the  employees  who  distribute  the  mail  cov- 
ered by  it  check  thereon  the  errors  they  discover,  as  directed  by  the 
Postal  Laws  and  Regulations,  and  thus  points  out  those  who  must 
be  urged  forward  in  their  studies,  and  cautioned  to  greater  care  in 
their  work,  or  be  removed  in  order  that  the  patrons  of  the  Post  Office 
Department  may  not  suffer  great  inconvenience  or  loss  through  their 
incompetency,  and  the  record  of  the  division  or  line,  especially 
interested,  be  lowered.  The  facing  slip  is  not  an  educator,  but 
is  an  indicator  of  the  degree  of  special  knowledge,  need  in 
the  work,  that  each  clerk  possesses,  and  in  this  capacity  does 
much  to  advance  the  service.  These  slips  were  not  furnished  the 
clerks  for  some  time  after  they  came  into  use,  but  large  sheets  of  wrap- 
ping paper  were  supplied — such  as  was  used  to  wrap  packages  of 
letters  in  theretofore — these  they  cut  into  slips  of  prescribed  dimen- 
sions and  wrote,  or  caused  to  be  printed  upon  each,  the  address  of  the 
package  it  was  to  cover,  the  name  of  the  employee  using  it,  the  direction 
moving,  and  just  before  placing  it  upon  the  package  they  made  a  clear 
impression  of  the  postmark  of  the  route,  with  the  date  of  the  run, 
upon  it.  Upon  the  face  of  these  early  slips  was  written,  or  printed, 
substantially  this :  "The  clerk  who  opens  and  distributes  this  package 
will  please  note  upon  the  back  of  this  slip  all  errors  of  distribution 
found  therein,  and  send  it  to  his  superintendent."  Later  blank  slips 
were  furnished  by  the  Department ;  still  later  printing  plants  and  cut- 
ting machines  were  introduced  in  the  offices  of  the  division  superin- 
tendent, through  the  appointment  of  qualified  printers  as  clerks,  under 
an   agreement   that   they   would    furnish   this   equipment   and   do   the 


12 

printing  if  detailed  to  that  duty.  Long  after  this  the  shps  were  cut 
and  printed  in  these  offices  and  turned  over  to  a  clerk  detailed  in 
charge  of  a  slip  room  fitted  up  with  long  cases  of  pigeon  holes,  into 
which  he  assorted  them,  and  from  which  he  filled  the  requisitions 
received  from  the  clerks ;  some  of  the  clerks,  however,  have  always 
preferred  to  have  their  slips  printed  outside,  because  they  could  deviate 
from  a  prescribed  formula — have  their  names,  train  numbers,  and 
other  details  printed  upon  them,  and  have  them  made  up  in  runs, 
which  would  be  impractical  in  preparing  a  general  supply  for  the 
postal  service.  Finally  the  exigencies  of  the  service  became  so  great 
and  pressing  that  these  offices  could  not  meet  them  economically,  and 
outside  printing  establishments  were  called  upon  to  help  out.  Now 
the  Feist  Printing  Company  of  White  Haven,  Penna.,  furnishes  the 
Post  Office  Department  nearly  all  the  slips  used.  The  clerks  make 
requisition  through  their  chief  clerks  upon  their  division  superin- 
tendents and  they  forward  them  to  the  Department,  which  gives  an 
order  covering  them  to  the  company  with  such  shipping  directions 
as  will  minimize  the  handling  and  cost  of  transportation.  Any  clerk 
can  have  his  slips  printed  by  the  same  company  as  he  likes,  at  the 
same  price,  but  must  pay  the  transportation  charges. 

It  did  not  require  a  long  trial  to  convince  such  officers  as  Messrs. 
Armstrong  and  Bangs  that  the  facing  slip  would  be  a  valuable  aid  in 
the  development  of  the  service;  from  1869,  the  year  it  was  introduced, 
to  1872,  the  year  a  systematic  record  of  errors  in  distribution  was  first 
made,  was  ample,  and  it  has  been  a  potent  factor  in  determining  the 
relative  efficiency  of  the  service,  one  year  with  another  ever  since. 

On  April  4th,  1869,  Mr.  Armstrong's  assignment  was  changed 
from  Chicago,  111.,  to  Washington,  D.  C,  and  under  the  designation 
of  General  Superintendent  of  railway  mail  service  the  supervision  and 
responsibilities  of  the  whole  service  centralized  in  his  office,  and  the 
possibilities  of  a  conflict  of  ideas,  and  procrastination,  in  applying 
tested  methods  universally  and  uniformly,  ceased;  after  this  whatever 
was  found  conducive  to  the  public  welfare  in  one  section  was  promptly 
utilized  in  the  other.  As  soon  as  he  entered  upon  his  new  assignment 
he  selected  as  his  successor  at  Chicago,  Mr.  George  S.  Bangs,  a  very 
able  man,  and  his  personal  friend,  and  this  selection  was  confirmed 
by  the  Postmaster  General.  One  of  the  first  things  that  engaged  Mr. 
Armstrong's  attention,  and  perhaps  the  most  important  of  all,  in  the 
favorable  development  of  the  service,  was  such  an  organization  of  it 
as  would  insure  immediate  and  personal  supervision  and  inspection  of 
the  whole;  more  intimate  knowledge  of  its  needs,  condition,  resources, 
helpfulness,   and   prospective   development.      To   this    end    he   recom- 


Hon.  George  S.  Bangs 

Inaugurator  of  the  First  Fast  Mail — New  York  to  Chicago. 


.  13 

mended  to  the  Postmaster  General  that  the  territory  of  the  United 
States  be  segregated  into  six  divisions,  with  headquarters  in  each  at  a 
central  transportation  point.  The  plan  was  approved  and  five  special 
agents,  designated  assistant  superintendents  railway  mail  service,  were 
assigned  one  to  each  of  the  first  five  divisions  named  in  the  list.  The 
sixth,  which  embraced  a  very  large  and  sparsely  settled  country  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  within  which  was  a  very  limited  railroad 
trackage  and  service,  but  a  vast  number  and  mileage  of  star  routes, 
remained  as  before,  practically  in  the  hands  of  such  special  agents  as 
were  assigned  to  the  territory  on  the  general  business  of  the  Depart- 
ment, except  that  the  chief  head  clerks  railway  mail  service  at  Omaha, 
Nebraska,  and  San  Francisco,  California,  handled  nearly,  if  not  quite, 
all  of  the  railroad  service  west  of  the  Missouri  river  until  1871,  when 
the  division  lines  were  readjusted  so  as  to  condense  the  six  divisions 
into  five,  the  fourth  of  the  original  organization  being  merged  into 
the  third  and  fifth,  the  latter  becoming,  numerically,  the  fourth  and  the 
sixth  the  fifth,  which  then  comprised  Arizona,  California,  Idaho,  Mon- 
tana, Nevada,  Oregon,  Utah,  Washington  and  Wyoming,  except  the 
Union  Pacific  R.  R.,  Alfred  Barstow,  assistant  superintendent,  San 
Francisco,  Cal. 

This  organization  was  the  initiative  of  that  systematic  and  sym- 
pathetic conduct  of  the  service,  which  by  degrees  brought  order  out 
of  confusion,  interest  out  of  indifference,  subordination  in  place  of 
disobedience,  and  efificiency,  where  poor  and  unsatisfactory  service 
existed. 

Mr.  Armstrong  resigned  May  3,  1871,  and  died  on  the  5th. 

GEORGE  S.  BANGS, 

who  had  been  in  charge  of  the  service  reporting  to  the  Chicago  head- 
quarters, from  April  4,  1869,  and  who  had  developed  great  executive 
ability  and  grasp  of  postal  affairs,  and,  as  well,  a  firm  belief  in  retain- 
ing in  the  service  all  employees  during  good  behavior  and  efficiency, 
was  fortunately  selected  for  the  vacant  office,  which  he  filled  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  public,  the  Department,  and  the  employees  of  the 
service  for  almost  five  years. 

During  his  administration  the  service  was  extended  very  mater- 
ially. The  "miles  of  railroad  upon  which  mail  was  carried"  increased 
from  49,834  to  72,348,  or  22,514  miles;  and  the  corps  of  employees 
from  1,382  to  2,415,  an  increase  of  1,033  ;  the  mail  more  than  doubled; 
the  supervisory  force  was  increased  as  was  the  number  of  divisions; 
scheme  making  became  active  in  division  headquarters,  and  they  were 
approved,  printed,  and  supplied  more   freely  by  the  general  superin- 


14 

tendent ;  some  of  the  most  capable  and  intelligent  subordinate  officers 
were  appointed  superintendents  of  mails  and  assigned  in  charge  of 
mailing  divisions  of  the  most  important  post  offices — this  to  harmonize 
and  perfect  the  distribution  more  readily ;  and  to  impress  this  upon 
those  most  interested  it  was  provided  that  all  distribution,  in  such 
offices  should  be  made  according  to  schemes  prepared  in  the  office  of 
tlie  superintendent  of  mails  and  approved  by  the  proper  division  super- 
intendent of  railway  mail  service ;  that  the  dispatch  and  exchange  of 
mails,  the  record  pertaining  to  these  and  the  distribution,  and  all  else 
relating  to  this  work,  in  these  offices,  be  subject  to  orders  and  instruc- 
tions emanating  from  the  railway  mail  service.  This  action  was  of 
inestimable  importance  in  elevating  the  old  system  and  establishing 
the  new.  During  this  period  the  "Fast  Mail,"  between  New  York 
and  Chicago,  via  the  New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  and  the  Lake 
Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  railroads  was  inaugurated,  as  was  full 
fast  railway  post  office  service — known  as  "The  Limited  Mail" — be- 
tween New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg,  via  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  Company,  at  which  latter  city  the  mails  dispatched  by  and 
distributed  in  it  were  pouched  out  and  forwarded  by  connecting  trains 
— not  railway  post  office — in  charge  of  baggage  men,  to  Chicago,  Cin- 
cinnati, important  intermediate  offices  and  routes,  and  St.  Louis, 
making  morning  connections  with  outward  bound  railway  post  offices 
at  the  two  first,  and  some  of  the  way  junctions,  and  afternoon  and 
night  at  the  latter. 

So,  too,  the  civil  service  reform  movement  bore  its  first  fruit  in 
these  years.  Under  the  Act  of  March  4,  1871,  Section  1753,  Revised 
Statutes,  which  authorized  the  President  to  appoint  a  civil  service 
commission,  to  draw  up  rules  for  his  consideration,  he  appointed 
Messrs.  George  William  Curtis,  Dorman  B.  Eaton,  and  Joseph  Medill 
— three  men  of  excellent  repute,  strong  convictions,  clear  understand- 
ing, and  each  in  his  field  of  labor  devoted  to  the  public  interest,  and 
not  only  willing  but  anxious  to  accept  and  weigh  information  respecting 
the  work  upon  which  they  were  entering  from  conservative  men  ex- 
perienced in  public  service.  They  commenced  their  work  early,  and  on 
Decem.ber  18,  1871,  presented  the  rules  they  had  drafted  to  the  Presi- 
dent, who  approved  them  the  following  day  to  take  effect  January  1, 
1872 ;  but  they  were  not  applied  to  the  railway  mail  service  until  the 
commission  completed  grouping  them,  and  made  recommendations  for 
carrying  them  into  effect. 

When  this  was  finished  President  Grant  issued  a  supplementary 
executive  order  announcing  it  and  his  approval,  and  stating  that  the 
provisions  adopted  would  be  enforced  as  rapidly  as  the  proper  arrange- 


Hon.  Theodore  N.  Vail 

Third  General  Superintendent  R.     M.  S. 


15 

ments  could  be  made.  This  order  was  issued  April  16,  1872,  and  pro- 
vided for  a  tenure  of  office  based  upon  good  behavior  and  efficiency. 
The  methods  of  ascertaining  and  promoting  these  were  practical,  being 
such,  in  the  main,  as  had  been  applied  to  the  service  successfully  by  its 
own  officers,  and  as  were  then  coming  into  general  use.  Among  these 
may  be  mentioned,  in  the  order  of  their  introduction,  the  facing  slip, 
case  examination,  schedule  of  connections,  and  the  probationary 
period ;  this  last  kept  fresh  in  the  minds  of  new  appointees  the  fact 
that  while  entry  into  the  service  was  usually  secured  through  politi- 
cal influence,  it  might  not  be  sufficient  to  retain  them  therein  unless 
they  demonstrated  fitness  for  it ;  this  was  an  incentive  to  the  highest 
usefulness.  Nevertheless  many  failed — it  is  claimed  as  high  as 
30  per  cent,  previous  to  1885 — and  were  dropped  at  the  end  of 
either  the  first  or  second  probation,  the  latter  being  frequently  granted. 
These  civil  service  rules  were  reasonably  satisfactory  as  long  as  the 
political  complexion  of  successive  administrations  of  the  Government 
remained  unchanged,  which  was  until  March  4,  1885;  after  that  date 
they  were  of  no  effect,  but  on  May  1,  1889,  a  civil  service  that  was, 
and  is,  effective,  was  established  by  law.  Mr.  Bangs  also  faced  the 
fight  made  upon  the  service  in  1873  and  1874,  and  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  it  overcome.     Resigned  February  3,  1876. 

THEODORE  N.  VAIL 

succeeded  to  the  general  superintendency  February  4,  1876.  He  had 
been  a  route  agent  on  the  Union  Pacific  railroad,  west  of  Omaha, 
Nebraska,  and  a  head  clerk  in  the  Omaha  &  Ogden  railway  post 
office,  on  the  same  road,  for  several  years.  Early  in  the  seven- 
ties he  was  detailed  to  the  office  of  General  Superintendent  Bangs, 
and  in  1873,  I  think,  was  promoted  to  assistant  superintendent,  and 
assigned  as  before.  He  was  active,  industrious,  efficient,  with  a  math- 
ematical turn  of  mind,  when  in  my  jurisdiction,  and  lost  none  of  these 
desirable  qualities  afterwards.  He  assumed  charge  of  the  service  at 
a  period  in  its  history  when  the  tide  of  progress,  which  had  been  full, 
was  beginning  to  ebb,  and  he  worked  energetically  to  stay  it,  but  it  was 
a  stupendous  and  discouraging  task,  for  Congress  had  ordered  a  reduc- 
tion of  ten  per  cent,  in  the  compensation  of  railroads  for  transporting 
the  mails,  July  18,  1876,  and  a  further  reduction  of  five  per  cent.  June 
17,  1878.  This  antagonized  the  companies,  in  the  East  especially,  for 
the  principal  lines  in  that  section  had  held  that  the  old  rates  were  non- 
remunerative,  and  expected  an  increase.  Being  disappointed  in  this, 
those  that  had  provided  exceptional  service  withdrew  it  on  July  22, 
1876,  and  the  facilities  for  the  quick  transit  of  the  mail  and  for  the 


16 

distribution  thereof,  in  some  sections  of  the  country,  became  less 
satisfactory  than  before  the  exceptional  service  was  inaugurated ;  but 
during  the  less  than  three  years  of  this  administration  the  miles  of 
railroad  upon  which  mail  was  transported  increased  about  5,372,  the 
annual  mileage  about  15,500,000,  the  number  of  railway  mail  service 
employees  193,  cost  of  the  employees  about  $90,000,  and  the  cost  of 
transportation  about  $50,000.  This  small  increase  in  cost  was  due  to 
the  reduction  in  rates,  just  alluded  to,  and  not  for  any  other  reason, 
for  the  mail  continued  to  grow  as  phenomenally  as  before. 

In  this  emergency  Mr.  Vail  adopted  a  wise  policy  with  respect  to 
the  railway  post  ofifice  service  on  long  railroad  lines  in  the  west,  south- 
west, and  south.  When  such  lines  were  covered  by  two  single  railway 
post  offices,  both  day  lines,  he  took  up  the  one  farthest  from  head- 
quarters, established  a  route  agency  in  lieu  of  it,  and  ordered  an  addi- 
tional railway  post  office  on  the  other  end  of  the  route.  To  illustrate, 
there  were  two  such  offices  between  Chicago,  111.,  and  Council  Bluffs, 
Iowa,  on  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  R.  R.,  one  designated 
Chicago  &  Burlington  and  the  other  Burlington  &  Council  Bluffs  R. 
P.  O. ;  the  latter  was  discontinued  and  a  night  line  established  on  the 
former — such  clerks  of  the  discontinued  railway  post  office  as  desired 
transfer  to  this  night  line  were  accommodated,  and  route  agent  service 
was  resumed  west  of  Burlington.  This  left  the  service  west  of  Chi- 
cago unimpaired,  because  the  lines  so  arranged  covered  all  the  through 
trains  in  both  directions,  caught  all  connections,  kept  all  but  the  local 
mails  out  of  the  head  offices,  and  provided  an  improved  supply  to  the 
double  line,  and  as  good  service  to  the  territory  of  the  Burlington  & 
Council  Bluffs  as  it  had  before. 

It  was  during  the  early  part  of  this  administration  that  our  ser- 
vice had  its  first  experience  with  strikes  on  railroad  lines,  and  these 
were  more  extensive  and  troublesome  in  the  east  than  in  the  west ;  in 
fact,  I  believe  they  only  extended  to  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan 
Southern,  the  Michigan  Central,  and  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy 
roads  west  of  Buffalo,  New  York. 

I  remember  that  the  division  superintendents  were  called  in  con- 
vention at  Lake  Mahopac,  New  York,  by  General  Superintendent  Vail 
in  1876,  and  that  when  we  adjourned  Superintendent  Cheney  of  the 
First  Division  escorted  us  through  the  Northern  portion  of  New 
England,  stopping  on  the  way  down  to  Boston  at  Hampton  Beach,  a 
beautiful  spot  with  a  fine  hotel,  on  the  Atlantic  coast  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, on  a  Saturday  afternoon  ;  two  of  us  at  least  intended  to  remain 
there  a  week  or  two  for  recreation  and  rest,  but  on  Monday  I  received 
a  telegram  from  Chicago  telling  me  that  the  railway  employees  were 


17 

very  restless,  that  trouble  was  anticipated,  and  that  I  had  better  come 
home;  so  Superintendent  Hunt  and  I  started  westward  that  day.  On 
our  arrival  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  we  found  travel  over  the  Lake 
Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  railroad  interrupted  by  labor  troubles, 
and  changed  our  course  via  Suspension  Bridge,  London  and  Windsor, 
Canada,  to  Detroit,  Michigan,  and  thence  over  the  Michigan  Central 
railroad  to  Chicago.  The  train  that  carried  us  through  to  Chicago 
was  about  the  last  that  got  through  on  this  line  for  some  days ;  they 
were  held  up  and  the  mails  discharged  from  them  at  the  station  where 
the  blockade  existed  until  a  great  pile  accumulated,  then  decisive  action 
was  taken  to  release  it.  Up  to  this  time  all  the  reasoning  powers  I 
possessed  were  exerted  to  have  the  embargo  raised ;  the  laws  respect- 
ing the  transportation  of  mail,  and  the  obstruction  of  it  in  transit,  were 
cited  but  without  avail,  so  I  telegraphed  Thomas  H.  Bringhurst,  a 
special  agent  of  the  Post  Office  Department  residing  at  Logansport, 
Indiana,  a  request  that  he  proceed  to  the  point  of  blockade  and  address 
the  recalcitrant  parties  respecting  their  violation  of  law,  and  advise 
them  in  the  "round  up"  of  his  talk  that  unless  they  ceased  to  interfere 
with  the  mails,  and  the  trains  carrying  them,  they  would  be  arrested  by 
the  United  States  marshals  and  prosecuted. 

Mr.  Bringhurst  complied  and  was  successful ;  the  mail  that  had 
been  held  was  released^,  and  thereafter  mail  carrying  trains  passed  over 
the  route  unmolested.  But  I  was  reprimanded ;  not,  however,  by  the 
General  Superintendent.  The  following  year  these  troubles  covered  a 
wider  territory  and  became  more  aggressive  east ;  but  one  line  in  the 
west  was  involved,  I  believe,  and  that  was  the  Chicago,  Burlington  «& 
Quincy ;  this  was  soon  relieved,  but  while  it  lasted  it  impaired  the  ser- 
vice materially  and  seemed  to  require  action  on  the  part  of  the  rail- 
way mail  service.  Therefore,  a  notice  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy 
was  sent  out : 

Chicago,  Illinois,  July  27,  1877. 

To  Strikers,  Rioters  and  Other  Parties  IVhomsoever: 

You  are  hereby  notified  that  the  Post  Office  Department  contracts 
with  the  railroad  companies  to  carry  mails  over  their  lines  as  often  as 
said  companies  may  run  passenger  trains  thereon. 

Therefore,  All  passenger  trains  carrying  mails  are  mail  trains, 
and  if  such  trains  are  delayed  by  violence  the  United  States  mails  are 
necessarily  delayed,  and  the  United  States  postal  laws  violated. 

You  are  further  notified  that  all  trains  carrying  United  States 
mail  must  not  be  delayed  on  any  pretense  whatever,  and  parties  delay- 
ing the  same  will  be  vigorously  prosecuted  under  the  United   States 


18 

laws.    All  officers  are  instructed  to  find  out  the  names  of  parties  who 
are  or  may  be  found  obstructing  the  mails  and  report  same  to  this  office. 

By  authority.  James  E.  White, 

Supt.  Railway  Mail  Service,  Chicago,  111. 

Additional  blanks  were  issued,  and  fuller  instructions  as  to  the 
use  of  facing  slips  and  the  conduct  of  case  examinations  were  promul- 
gated this  year  also. 

Considering  the  little  encouragement  General  Superintendent  Vail 
had  received  in  this  field  of  labor,  and  the  excellent  opportunity  for 
advancement  urged  upon  him  in  another,  which  he  realized  when 
others  did  not,  it  would  have  been  strange  indeed  if  he  had  not  severed 
his  connection  with  the  one  and  affiliated  with  the  other  immediately. 
This  he  did  on  November  25,  1878,  and  became  the  manager  of  the 
now  famous  Bell  Telephone  Company. 

During  Mr.  Vail's  administration  the  record  of  efficiency  in  the 
service  was  about  as  follows : 
No.  of  employees  in   1876,  when  he  assumed  charge, 

about  2,415 

No.  of  employees  in  1878,  when  he  retired 2,608 

Miles  of  R.  R.  carrying  mail  1876,  when  he  assumed 

charge    72,400 

Miles  of   R.   R.   carrying  mail   1878,   when   he   retired, 

about   78,000 

Annual  miles,  1876,  when  he  assumed  charge    77,000,000 

Annual  miles,  1878,  when  he  retired,  about 92,537,060 

Pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed,  1876 No  record 

Errors  in  distribution,   1876    No  record 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error,  1876 No  record 

Pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed,  1877,  about 864,723,927 

Errors  in  distribution,  1877,  about   264,917 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error,  1877,  about   3,226| 

Pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed,  1878   2,215,080,650 

Errors  in  distribution,  1878   625,662 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error,  1878    3,540 

Number  of  case  examinations,  1878    3,979 

Number  of  cards  handled,  1878   3,996,782 

Correctly  handled,  1878    2,811,899 

Per  cent,  correct,  1878    70.35 

The  year  1877  the  first  facing  slip  record  appeared  in  the  annual 
report  of  the  General  Superintendent,  and  the  report  for  1878  con- 
tained the  first  case  examination  record  of  the  entire  service,  though 


Hon.  William  B.  Thompson 

Fourth  General  Superintendent  R.  M.  S. 
Restored  the  Fast  Mail — New  York  and  Chicago 


19 

the  former  was  introduced  in  18G9  and  the  latter  in  1870.  The  scat- 
tering reports  of  divisions  prior  to  1878  showed  that  the  average  per 
cent,  correct  made  in  the  beginning  of  its  general  use  was  about  50; 
from  1878  to  1884  it  rose  but  once  above  78.10— that  was  in  1883, 
when  it  reached  87.46  per  cent. 

As  has  been  indicated,  the  reduction  of  10  per  centum,  in  187G, 
and  5  per  centum,  in  1878,  in  the  rates  of  compensation,  fixed  by  the 
law  of  1873,  for  the  transportation  of  the  mails  by  railroad  companies, 
created  widespread  dissatisfaction  among  the  managers  of  all  com- 
panies, and  deep  indignation  on  the  part  of  those  who,  in  expectation 
of  increased  compensation  therefor,  were  providing  unusual  facilities, 
such  as  fast  and  limited  mail  trains,  which  they  withdrew  upon 
receipt  of  the  information  that  the  Act  of  July  18,  1876,  had  become 
operative,  and  that  beginning  with  the  first  of  that  month,  those  rates 
would  be  reduced  10  per  centum.  The  reduction  of  5  per  centum 
which  followed  in  1878  emphasized  the  opinion,  held  by  the  companies, 
that  Congress  was  not  willing  to  grant  them  fair  remuneration  for  the 
services  they  rendered  the  government,  so  they  emphasized  their  justi- 
fiable action  in  withdrawing  the  special  trains,  by  the  questionable  one 
of  curtailing  ordinary  accommodations. 

The  result  of  the  first  step  in  this  unfortunate  controversy  was 
much  to  the  disadvantage  of  public  and  private  interests,  for  it  was 
responsible  for  the  defensive  or  retaliatory  measures  of  the  companies, 
that  brought  about  the  impairment  of  the  service,  and  the  aggressive 
demand  which  ensued  for  the  restoration  of  the  lost  facilities,  or  for 
compensating  service,  culminating  in  the  series  of  annual  appropria- 
tions for  special  facilities,  which  began  with  the  one  of  March  3,  1877, 
for  $150,000,  to  be  used  during  the  fiscal  year  1878,  in  the  discretion 
of  the  Postmaster  General,  to  improve  the  service  on  trunk  lines. 
This  did  not  restore  the  lost  service,  but  it  did  provide  some  compen- 
sating service. 

The  withdrawal  of  the  exceptional  service,  and  the  initiation  of  the 
movement  to  minimize  its  effect,  occurred  during  Mr.  Vail's  incum- 
bency of  the  office  of  General  Superintendent,  and  undoubtedly  pre- 
pared him  to  enter  another  field  of  labor  without  regret. 

WILLIAM  B.  THOMPSON, 

superintendent  of  the  Ninth  Division,  succeeded  Mr.  Vail  Decem- 
ber 1,  1878.  Mr.  Thompson  entered  the  service  December  8, 
1868,  as  a  route  agent  on  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  South- 
ern railway — between  Toledo,  Ohio,  and  Chicago,  111.,  at  $900 
per    annum;    promoted    to    second    clerk,    $1,200    per    annum,    in 


20 

the  Toledo  &  Chicago  railway  post  office,  September  17,  1869;  to  head 
clerk,  $1,400  per  annum,  same  office,  February  21,  1870 ;  assigned  as 
chief  head  clerk  (chief  clerk,  without  change  of  pay)  at  Toledo,  Ohio, 
September,  1871 ;  commissioned  special  agent,  Post  Office  Department, 
at  $1,600  per  annum.  May  1,  1875,  and  later  assigned  as  assistant 
superintendent  railway  mail  service  in  charge  of  the  New  York  & 
Chicago  fast  mail — which  was  inaugurated  September  16  of  the  same 
year — promoted  to  superintendent  of  division,  with  headquarters  at 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  July  18,  1878 ;  to  General  Superintendent  December 
1st,  of  the  same  year,  and  appointed  Second  Assistant  Postmaster 
General  January  1,  1885.  A  record  of  advancement  in  class  brilliant 
enough  to  satisfy  the  most  ambitious.  The  fact  that  he  served  as  a 
soldier  during  the  Civil  War  attests  his  patriotism,  as  does  his  mem- 
bership in  the  Loyal  Legion. 

In  assuming  the  office  of  General  Superintendent  he  took  up  its 
duties  and  responsibilities,  agreeable  and  burdensome,  where  they 
were  laid  down  by  his  predecessor.  Chief  among  these  was  the  reha- 
bilitation of  the  service,  and  its  advancement  in  extent,  efficiency,  and 
usefulness  to  the  level  it  should  have  reached  had  it  not  slipped  a  cog 
in  1876 ;  and  though  he  set  about  this  task  earnestly,  and  persistently, 
the  most  that  was  accomplished  in  the  expedition  of  the  service  prior 
to  March,  1884,  was  secured  through  the  use  of  special  facility  funds, 
and  the  greater  portion  of  this  fund  during  all  the  years  it  was  appro- 
priated was  expended  in  expediting  the  service  south  of  New  York 
City,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Alexandria,  and  Washington,  D.  C,  to 
Richmond,  Lynchburg,  and  Danville,  Va.,  Wilmington  and  Charlotte, 
N.  C,  Charleston,  Columbia,  and  Florence,  S.  C,  Atlanta  and  Savan- 
nah, Ga.,  New  Orleans,  La.,  Jacksonville,  Sanford  and  Tampa,  Fla., 
and  intermediate  points ;  though,  during  the  earlier  years,  part  of  each 
appropriation  was  expended  in  expediting  the  service  on  the  Penn- 
sylvania railroad  between  New  York  City  and  Columbus,  Ohio ;  on 
the  New  York  Central  system  between  New  York  City  and  Cleveland 
and  Toledo,  Ohio,  and  the  4:35  a.  m.  train  between  New  York  City, 
Poughkeepsie  and  Albany,  N.  Y. ;  also  on  the  5  :00  a.  m.  train  of  the 
New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  railroad  between  New  York  City 
and  Springfield,  Mass. 

For  the  fiscal  year  1882  the  appropriation  was  $425,000,  and  the 
facilities  provided  covered  a  greater  mileage.  Of  this  sum  $142,985.- 
71  was  expended  on  the  special  service  between  New  York  and  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  between  New  York  and  Albany,  N.  Y.,  via  the  4:35  a.  m. 
train,  and  between  New  York  and  Cleveland,  Ohio,  with  extension  to 
Toledo,  Ohio,  and  Chicago,  111. ;  also  from  New  York  to  Columbus, 


21 

Ohio,  with  extensions  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  and  Chica- 
go, 111.  None  of  these,  however,  were  fast  mail  trains.  Of  the  re- 
maining appropriation  $231,544.93  was  used  in  maintaining  the  expe- 
dited service  south  of  New  York  City,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Alex- 
andria, and  Washington,  D.  C.  The  residue  ($50,469.36)  was  unex- 
pended. 

The  largest  special  facility  appropriation  ever  made  was  for  the 
fiscal  year  1883,  which  amounted  to  $600,000,  but  only  $185,121.32  was 
expended.  Of  this  $42,647.06  was  used  to  continue  the  5 :00  a.  m. 
service  between  New  York  and  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  the  4:35  a.  m. 
between  New  York  and  Albany,  N.  Y. ;  the  remainder — $142,474.26 — 
was  used  on  a  line  from  Philadelphia,  via  Baltimore  and  Washington, 
D.  C,  to  Richmond  and  Wilmington,  and  Florence  to  Charleston 
Junction,  S.  C,  and  from  Florence  to  Columbia,  S.  C. 

The  appropriation  for  1884  was  $185,000 ;  it  was  expended  to 
maintain  the  1883  arrangement.  For  the  fiscal  year  1885,  $250,000 
was  appropriated,  of  which  $249,999.82  was  expended  as  for  1883 
and  1884,  except  that  the  line  south  was  extended  from  Charleston 
Junction  to  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  and  special  service  was  provided  be- 
tween Baltimore  and  Hagerstown,  Md. 

From  1885  down  to  and  including  1891,  with  one  exception,  the 
annual  appropriation  for  this  special  service  amounted  to  a  little  more 
than  $295,000,  while  the  territory  covered  by  it  remained  practically 
unchanged.  But  in  1892  the  appropriation  dropped  to  $196,614.16, 
and  in  1894  a  further  reduction  to  $171,238.75,  occurred,  on  account 
of  the  discontinuance  of  all  the  expedited  service,  save  the  line  to  the 
south,  which  was  changed  from  the  Pennsylvania  and  Atlantic  Coast 
Line  railways,  to  the  Pennsylvania  and  Southern  railroads,  and  ex- 
tended from  New  York  City  via  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Washington, 
D.  C,  Danville,  Greensboro,  Charlotte,  Atlanta,  Montgomery,  and 
Mobile  to  New  Orleans,  with  connections  at  Charlotte  for  Florida 
points.  In  1898  it  rose  to  $195,000  on  account  of  the  establishment  of 
an  expedited  line  from  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  to  Newton,  Kas. — the  only 
one  ever  established  west,  north,  or  south  of  Chicago  or  St.  Louis — 
it  was  continued  at  this  rate  until  1903,  when  the  Pennsylvania  allot- 
ment of  the  fund  was  discontinued  and  the  appropriation  was  reduced 
to  $167,175.  Of  this,  $142,005  was  apportioned  to  the  line  from 
Washington,  D.  C,  to  New  Orleans,  La.,  and  $25,000  to  the  one  from 
Kansas  City  to  Newton.  The  allowance,  Washington  to  New  Orleans, 
was  discontinued  January  5,  1907,  and  the  Kansas  City  and  Newton 
with  the  close  of  that  fiscal  year. 


22 

No  appropriation  for  special  facilities  was  inade  thereafter ;  none 
was  needed,  but  they  subserved  private  and  public  interests  quite 
largely  during  the  years  immediately  following  the  discontinuance  of 
the  first  fast  and  limited  mail  trains ;  more  so  than  during  any  other 
period.  This  was  natural  and  as  anticipated ;  it  was  not  intended  at 
any  time  that  they  should  become  perpetual ;  their  mission  was  to 
assist  in  providing  a  service  that  would  more  nearly  meet  business  de- 
mands, encourage  increase  and  expansion  of  industries ;  secure  con- 
cessions in  the  hours  of  arrival  and  departure  of  mail  trains  at  termi- 
nal and  junction  points,  thus  fostering  the  growth  of  the  mail  and 
providing  for  the  more  efficient  handling  of  it  and,  as  a  sequence, 
gradually  and  naturally  increase  the  revenue  derived  from  its  trans- 
portation upon  the  basis  provided  by  the  law,  until  it  became  suffi- 
ciently remunerative  to  justify  the  withdrawal  of  special  facility  pay, 
and  the  continuance  of  the  improved  service  without  that  stimulant. 
That  is  what  happened ;  the  mail  increased  in  weight,  not  so  much  in 
pay,  about  23  times  between  the  dates  of  the  first  and  last  special 
facility  appropriation — 1878  and  1907. 

The  growth  was  much  more  rapid  on  the  New  York  Central, 
Pennsylvania,  and  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  railroad  sys- 
tems than  on  the  other  special  facility  routes,  as  was  known  would  be 
the  case  when  they  were  established ;  consequently  they  were  in  condi- 
tion to  provide  the  service  without  aid  earlier;  therefore,  it  was  discon- 
tinued on  them  first,  i.  e.,  mainly  with  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  1883, 
and  wholly  with  1893,  except  so  much  as  was  allotted  the  Pennsylva- 
nia for  maintaining  that  portion  of  the  southern  route — New  York 
City  and  New  Orleans — between  the  former  city  and  Washington,  D. 
C,  which  was  also  discontinued  in  1903.  In  1907  special  facility  pay- 
ments ceased  entirely — having  fulfilled  their  mission  by  building  up, 
in  connection  with  concentration  of  eligible  mail  upon  them,  certain 
great  mail  arteries,  leading  into  different  sections  of  the  country,  by 
which  subsidiary  routes  and  dependent  offices  were  supplied. 

The  arrangement  and  rearrangement,  from  time  to  time,  equip- 
ment, and  harmonious  working  of  these,  and  their  tributary  routes, 
was  a  constant  care  to  General  Superintendent  Thompson,  and  added 
greatly  to  his  official  responsibilities,  but  they  were  borne  with  cheerful 
equanimity,  and  discharged  as  graciously,  "by  my  troth,"  as  if  he  had 
been  a  cavalier  of  the  old  school.  However,  righteous  indignation  was 
appeased  by  a  little  blood  letting  occasionally.  During  all  this  time  he 
labored  assiduously  for  the  establishment  of  an  improved  fast  mail 
between  New  York  City  and  Chicago,  and  for  the  same  class  of  ser- 
vice west  and  northwest  of  the  latter  city,  via  connecting  routes  and 


33 

trains.  This  was  finally  accomplished  on  March  9,  11  and  13,  1884, 
by  the  extension  of  the  train  leaving  New  York  City  via  the  New 
York  Central  system  at  8  :50  p.  m.  and  arriving  at  Toledo,  Ohio,  at 
4:57  p.  m.;  to  Chicago  over  the  L.  S.  &  M.  S.  R.  R.— arriving  at  the 
latter  city  seven  hours  and  thirty-eight  minutes  later  (12:35  a.  m.). 
Two  days  afterward  (March  11th),  the  Chicago  and  Union  Pacific 
Transfer,  Iowa,  fast  mail,  made  its  first  run  over  the  Chicago,  Bur- 
lington &  Quincy  railway,  departing  from  Chicago  at  3  :00  a.  m.  and 
arriving  at  the  western  terminus  at  7  :00  p.  m.,  where  it  connected  with 
the  regular  passenger  and  mail  train  for  the  Pacific  coast,  via  the 
Union  Pacific  railroad.  Two  days  later  (March  13),  a  fast  mail  made 
its  initial  trip  over  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  railway,  be- 
tween Chicago  and  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  leaving  Chicago  at  3 :00  a.  m. 
and  arriving  at  St.  Paul  at  3  :30  p.  m.,  making  connection  there  with 
the  west  bound  night  trains. 

These  and  all  other  fast  mails  west,  north,  and  south  of  Chicago 
have  been  established  without  the  use  of  special  facility  funds.  In 
fact,  they  were  secured,  and  have  been  wonderfully  successful  in  ex- 
pediting the  mails,  with  a  saving  in  the  cost  of  transportation  charges ; 
a  condition  due  to  the  law  of  March  3,  1873,  which  based  these  charges 
on  the  average  weight  of  mail  carried  the  whole  length  of  routes  for 
a  certain  number  of  days,  not  less  than  thirty,  and  taken  not  less  fre- 
quently than  once  every  four  years ;  fixing  a  descending  rate  of  com- 
pensation for  an  ascending  weight.  Reductions  of  10  and  5  per  cent, 
have  been  made  from  those  rates  in  pursuance  of  the  Acts  of  July 
12,  1876,  and  June  17,  1878,  but  the  feature  of  the  law  which  made 
for  economical  transportation  remains  unimpaired,  viz. :  A  decrease 
in  the  rates  of  pay  as  the  weights  increase.  This  encouraged  the  con- 
centration of  the  mails  on  trunk  lines  as  far  as  could  be  without  de- 
laying it,  and  moved  such  lines  to  accept  them  and  to  provide  most 
excellent  accommodations  for  their  proper  and  prompt  handling.  This 
action  by  those  interested  recognized  the  well  established  business 
principle  that  the  ratio  of  expense  to  the  earnings  in  operating  a 
healthy  business  decreases  with  its  growth,  leaving  a  larger  margin  of 
profit  to  invest  in  expansion,  in  improved  service,  or  to  be  disposed 
of  in  any  other  way  the  owner  of  the  business  deems  best ;  sometimes 
experience  leads  him  to  reduce  the  price  of  the  traffic  he  ofifers;  in 
that  case  he  has  learned  the  lesson  that  a  small  profit  on  each  trans- 
action of  a  large  business  aggregates  a  greater  net  income  than  is 
realized  from  a  larger  profit  on  each  transaction  of  a  smaller  business. 

The  law  of  March  3,  1873,  is  provided  with  another  economical 
feature,  but  one  that  does  not  seem  to  be  predicated  upon  any  known 


24 

equitable  business  principle,  and  would — if  applied  to  merchandising 
— bankrupt  those  engaged  in  it  who  are  transacting  a  progressive 
business ;  only  those  whose  business  is  on  the  decline  could  benefit  by- 
it,  and  then  only  at  the  expense  of  others  who,  because  of  superior 
advantages,  have  acquired  part  of  their  trade,  or  stopped  the  natural 
increase  from  flowing  in  its  accustomed  channel ;  reference  is  made 
to  that  clause  which  reads:  "That  the  pay  per  mile  per  annum  shall 
not  exceed  the  following  rates,  namely ;  *  *  *  the  average  weight 
to  be  ascertained,  in  every  case,  by  the  actual  weighing  of  the  mails 
for  such  number  of  successive  working  days,  not  less  than  thirty,  at 
such  times  after  June  30,  1873,  and  not  less  frequently  than  once  in 
every  four  years." 

The  mail  increases  rapidly  day  by  day,  year  by  year ;  the  farther 
away  the  closing  day  of  the  last  weighing  is  from  the  opening  day  of 
the  next,  the  more  pronounced  the  extent  of  the  increase  becomes. 
This  is  most  noticeable  on  the  great  trunk  lines,  which  receive  the 
lowest  rates  of  pay  and  perform  the  highest  class  and  most  frequent 
service ;  the  increase  on  these  often  amounts  to  twenty  or  more  per 
cent,  of  the  weight  taken  on  them  during  the  quadrennial  weighing, 
and  it  matters  not  what  it  may  average  over  the  whole  route,  for  the 
intervening  four  years  it  is  hauled  without  increase  of  compensation 
until  the  next  readjustment  becomes  effective.  This,  and  the  descend- 
ing rates  of  pay  provided  for  in  the  law  of  1873,  would  seem  to  have 
brought  the  cost  of  transportation  down  to  a  point  beyond  which  it 
cannot  be  reduced  and  leave  a  margin  of  reasonable  profit,  especially 
if  just  consideration  is  given  the  many  details — more  or  less  expensive 
— associated  with  it. 

The  pay  per  ton  per  mile  on  the  largest  routes,  including  paid  car 
space,  is  about  seven  cents,  excluding  paid  car  space  about  six,  and, 
ascending  cent  by  cent  as  the  tonnage  decreases,  it  reaches  in  some 
instances  enormous  figures,  often  $16.00  or  more  and  many  times 
$12.00,  but  the  lower  and  higher  costs  mentioned  must  be  counted 
among  the  extremes. 

During  Mr.  Thompson's  administration,  and  chiefly  through  his 
untiring  efforts,  which  secured  for  it  the  support  of  the  Postmaster 
General  and  his  Second  Assistant,  the  Act — approved  July  31,  1882 — 
to  designate,  classify,  and  fix  the  salaries  of  persons  in  the  railway 
mail  service,  became  a  law  and  was  promulgated  in  the  Postmaster 
General's  Order  No.  354,  issued  August  1st  of  the  same  year.  This 
act  discontinued  the  designations  route  agents,  local  agents,  and  mail 
route  messengers,  and  thereafter  all  employees  of  the  service,  except 
the  commissioned  officers,  were  known  as  railway  postal  clerks.     The 


25 

order  of  the  Postmaster  General  interpreting  the  law,  and  prescribing 
the  regulations  to  carry  it  into  effect,  was  very  comprehensive  and 
they  worked  satisfactorily. 

The  Daily  Postal  Bulletin,  that  most  useful  publication  of  the 
Post  Office  Department  for  the  transmission  of  information  indis- 
pensable to  a  prompt  and  orderly  conduct  of  its  business  by  its  officers, 
and  to  a  satisfactory  understanding  and  utilization  of  the  facilities, 
accommodations,  and  methods  it  provides  for  the  benefit  of  its  patrons, 
was  introduced  during  this  administration. 

The  Presidential  election  of  1884  resulted  in  the  first  change  in 
the  political  complexion  of  the  Government  since  1861 ;  most — if  not 
all — who  held  Federal  offices  up  to  a  short  time  subsequent  to  the 
inauguration  of  the  incoming  President — March  4,  1885 — believed 
their  doom  was  at  hand,  and  those  who  could,  secured  positions  else- 
where, but  as  a  rule  those  railway  mail  employees  who  knew  they 
measured  up  to  the  requirements  of  President  Grant's  tenure  of  office 
order  of  1872 — "efficiency  and  good  behavior" — and  who  had  not 
made  themselves  politically  offensive  to  good  citizens,  though  appre- 
hensive, felt  or  hoped  that  they  might  rest  secure  on  the  implied,  if 
not  direct,  assurances  of  that  order  as  they  had  for  more  than  twelve 
years.  The  officers  of  the  service,  I  believe,  did  not  expect  to  remain 
long,  and  I  have  always  believed  that  Mr.  Thompson,  feeling  that 
the  office  would  be  subject  to  unpleasant  situations  under  the  incoming 
administration  and,  therefore,  undesirable,  concluded,  as  he  was  per- 
fectly independent  of  it  financially,  to  accept  the  office  of  Second 
Assistant  Postmaster  General  for  the  remaining  months  of  the  out- 
going administration,  and  retire  from  public  service  with  his  political 
friends,  knowing  that  his  public  career  had  been  meritorious. 

Under  his  administration  the  service   improved   steadily   as  the 
following  records  show : 
No.  of  employees  in  1878,  when  he  assumed  charge.  ..  3,608 

No.  of  employees  in  1884,  when  he  retired 4,175 

Increase  during  the  six  years 1,567 

Average  annual   increase    261 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail  1878,  when  he  assumed 

charge   78,000 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail  1884,  when  he  retired. .  119,120 

Increase  during  the  six  years 41,120 

Average  annual  increase    6,853^ 

Annual   miles   carrying  mail    1878,   when   he   assumed 

charge    92,537,060 

Annual  miles  carrying  mail  1884,  w^hen  he  retired.  .  .  .       147,226,766 


26 

increase  during  the  six  years 54,689,706 

Average  annual  increase    9,114,951 

Pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed   1878,  when   he  as- 
sumed charge    3,215,080,650 

Errors  in  distribution    635,662 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error    3,540 

Pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed  1884,  when  he  retired  4,519,661,900 

Errors  in  distribution,  Dec.  31,  1884,  18  mos 1,167,323 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error   3,872 

Increase  in  pieces  distributed  during  the  six  years 2,304,581,350 

Average  annual   increase    384,096,875 

Average  annual  increase  of  errors   194,537 

Average  annual  increase  of  pieces  correct  to  each  error  55 
No.   of   case   examinations     1878,    when   he    assumed 

charge   3,979 

No.  of  cards  handled   3,996,783 

Correctly    handled    2,811,899 

Per  cent,  correct    70.35 

No.  of  case  examinations  1884,  when  he  retired 4,903 

No.  of  cards  handled   5,028,493 

Correctly    handled    3,927,390 

Per  cent,   correct    78  3-5 

Increased  per  cent,  correct  in  6  years 8  1-4 

Annual  increase  correct   1  3-8 

Pieces  of  mail  separated  for  immediate  city  delivery,  by 
carriers,  in  railway  post  offices  from  July  1,  1883, 

to  January   1,   1885    89,694,475 

Being  48,824,750  for  the  fiscal  year  1884,  and 
40,869,735  for  the  first  half  of  the  fiscal  year 
1885. 

Average  annual  separation  for  city  delivery 59,596,313 

JOHN  JAMESON 

was  appointed  to  the  Washington  &  Petersburg,  Va.,  railway  post 
office  May  4,  1867,  at  $1,400  per  annum;  resigned  April  14, 
187G;  appointed  special  agent,  to  act  as  assistant  superintendent 
railway  mail  service,  April  15,  1876,  at  $1,300  per  annum; 
pay  increased  July  1,  1878,  to  $1,600  per  annum;  promoted  Oc- 
tober 1,  1881,  to  $3,500  per  annum  as  one  of  the  ten  inspectors,  at  that 
salary,  authorized  under  the  Act  of  Congress  June  17,  1878 ;  was 
promoted  to  be  general  superintendent  January  1,  1885,  at  $3,500  per 
annum,  and  resigned  February  4,  1887. 


Hon.  John  Jameson 

Fifth  General  Superintendent  R.  M.  S. 


27 

The  incoming  administration  assumed  the  government  of  the 
nation  Httle  more  than  two  months  after  Mr.  Jameson  entered  upon 
the  responsibiUties  of  his  office.  The  days  that  followed  were  not 
replete  with  joy — the  mysteries  of  the  morrow  were  a  menace  to  the 
service,  therefore  an  unfailing  source  of  anxiety  to  him  who  had 
charge  of  it ;  many  of  his  waking  hours  were  devoted  quite  largely 
to  the  consideration  of  a  probable  and  possible  perilous  situation  that 
either  threatened  the  integrity  of  the  service  by  making  indiscriminate 
breaches  in  the  corps  of  trained  and  experienced  distributers  or  unin- 
tentionally impairing  it  in  other  ways.  In  time  these  disquieting 
thoughts,  with  others  relating  to  the  regular  business  of  his  office, 
could  not  be  shaken  off  when  the  doors  of  the  great  Department 
building  closed  behind  him,  they  became  his  constant  companions ; 
accompanied  him  to  and  from  his  home ;  were  with  him  day  and  night, 
and  always  making  demands  upon  his  time  and  strength ;  when  he 
sought  repose  and  sleep,  to  recuperate  his  jaded  mind  and  weary  body, 
the  headsman  with  his  axe  stood  at  his  elbow  waiting  for  the  examina- 
tion and  review  of  papers  he  brought  from  the  office  in  his  pockets  for 
that  purpose;  therefore,  he  must  forego  rest,  slumber  and  forgetfulness 
until  "a  more  convenient  season." 

Undoubtedly  the  suave  manner,  phlegmatic  disposition,  and  un- 
dertow of  gentle  resistance  to  indiscriminate  removals  from  the  ser- 
vice, characteristic  of  Mr.  Jameson  and  his  administration,  qualified 
him  for  the  emergency — enabled  him  to  influence  the  Postmaster 
General  to  a  conservative  course  in  considering  the  demands  for 
changes  in  office  which  poured  in  upon  him  continually.  To  Mr. 
Jameson,  those  who  aided  him,  and  above  all  to  the  business  sense  and 
grasp  of  mind  of  Colonel  Vilas  was  due  this 

"SPECIAL  NOTICE. 

Post  Office  Department. 

Office  Postmaster  General, 

Washington,  D.  C,  March  31,  1885. 
Tenure  of  Office, — Railway  postal  clerks  who  have  become  effi- 
cient and  valuable  men,  against  whom  no  just  complaint  of  neglect, 
inattention,  or  want  of  fidelity,  honesty,  or  efficiency  can  be  brought, 
and  who  have  not  turned  their  attention  to  political  labors  during 
their  service,  need  have  no  fear  of  being  disturbed  so  long  as  they  con- 
tinue to  render  meritorious  and  faithful  service. 

(Signed)         Wm.  F.  Vilas, 

Postmaster  General." 


28 

This  notice  exerted  a  quieting  influence  upon  the  men,  and  it  is 
not  believed  that  many  valuable  clerks  would  have  been  removed 
during  the  administration  of  Postmaster  General  Vilas,  but  for  the  ill 
advised  organization  of  the  "Brotherhood  of  Postal  Clerks,"  in  fact 
clerks,  who  affiliated  with  this  society,  but  were  not  active  in  prose- 
lyting, were  not  disturbed.  Each  case  known  was  carefully  considered 
by  Mr.  Jameson,  and  action  on  it  taken  in  conformity  with  rules  de- 
termined in  conference  with  the  head  of  the  Department  to  be  neces- 
sary to  destroy  an  association  believed  to  be  inimical  to  private  and 
public  interests,  because  its  purpose  was  intimidation  and  retaliation ; 
before  action  was  taken  upon  any  case  the  proper  Division  Superinten- 
dent was  requested  to  inform  his  chief  of  all  mitigating  circumstances, 
the  character,  disposition,  and  capacity  of  the  clerk,  and  all  these  were 
weighed.  It  has  been  my  understanding  that  this  association  originated 
in  the  Fifth  Division  where  the  removals  were  the  most  numerous  in 
the  first  years  of  the  administration,  but  the  men  must  be  credited  with 
excellent  recuperative  judgment,  which  led  them  to  abandon  the  so- 
ciety and  to  resume  their  loyalty  to  their  very  honorable  calling  and  to 
the  people  whom  they  served  after  a  brief  lapse. 

That  General  Superintendent  Jameson  was  faithful  to  his  trust, 
realized  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  and  labored  to  prevent  its  culmi- 
nation, is  attested  in  the  following  extract  from  his  first  annual  report 
(1885)  respecting  civil  service: 

*  *  *  "If  continued  in  the  service  his  studentship  is  by  no 
means  ended;  in  fact,  if  assigned  to  any  one  of  the  larger  lines  of  the 
country,  it  is  but  commenced,  and  the  appointee  must  look  forward  to 
several  years  of  constant  application  before  he  can  hope  to  attain  the 
highest  grades.  I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  it  requires  fully  as  much 
mental,  and  more  physical,  labor  to  become  a  first  class  postal  clerk 
than  it  does  to  become  proficient  in  any  other  trade  or  profession. 

"Years  of  patient  and  assiduous  labor  and  study  have  served  to 
train  up  in  the  service  a  corps  of  energetic  and  faithful  employees 
whose  places  could  not  be  satisfactorily  filled  without  the  expenditure 
of  an  equal  amount  of  time  and  labor  in  the  preparation  of  their  suc- 
cessors. The  retirement  of  these  skilled  clerks  could  not  but  be  followed 
by  disastrous  results  to  many  of  the  commercial  and  social  interests  of 
the  country,  which  depend  in  a  great  measure  upon  the  prompt  delivery 
of  the  mails. 

"In  view  of  these  facts,  I  cannot  close  this  annual  report  without 
reminding  you  that,  while  in  other  and  less  important  branches  of  the 
public  service  the  tenure  of  office  of  employees  is  covered  by  the  civil 
service  law,  the  railway  mail  service  remains  outside  of  its  protecting 


29 

influence,  and  to  earnestly  recommend  that  some  action  be  taken  by 
the  Department  in  the  matter,  to  the  end  that  Congress  may  be  pre- 
vailed upon  to  extend  the  benefits  of  that  law  to  this  service,  and  there- 
by insure  the  retention  in  office  of  postal  clerks  so  long  as  they  continue 
to  render  meritorious  service,  comply  strictly  with  all  of  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  Department,  abstain  from  undue  interference  in  political 
matters,  and  conduct  themselves  in  a  gentlemanly  manner. 

"With  a  view  to  bringing  this  important  matter  to  the  attention 
of  Congress,  I  have  the  honor  to  submit  the  following  draft  of  a  bill 
which  embodies  my  ideas  as  to  what  is  required  in  the  premises,  and 
with  the  hope  that  it  may  receive  favorable  action." 

Then  follows  the  draft  of  the  bill,  which  is  only  fair  as  compared 
with  the  civil  service  laws  and  regulations  of  to-day.  But  we  have 
been  advancing  with  great  strides  during  the  past  twenty- four  years; 
what  was  only  fair  then,  would  be  very  crude  now. 

Mr.  Jameson,  like  his  predecessors  and  his  successors,  until  Con- 
gress authorized  it  in  1900,  urged  that  the  chief  clerks  of  the  service  be 
recognized  by  law,  and  be  paid  a  higher  salary  than  that  allowed  clerks 
in  charge.  These  officers  were,  always  have  been,  and  always  will  be, 
indispensable.  They  are  selections  from  those  counted  the  most  cap- 
able clerks  in  charge ;  have  supervision  of  from  fifty  to  two  hundred 
or  more  clerks ;  in  many  respects  their  duties  are  like  those  of  the 
superintendents  to  whom  they  are  accredited,  only  in  a  lesser  degree, 
and  they  lack  the  authority  of  final  action  in  important  cases.  In  Mr. 
Jameson's  time  few  of  them  were  provided  with  stenographers  or 
other  help ;  they  did  all  the  work  themselves,  as  best  they  could ;  ex- 
amined their  subordinates,  inspected  the  routes  under  their  charge, 
scheduled  the  runs,  filled  those  left  vacant  for  any  reason,  made  minor 
investigations,  reported  irregularities  of  service,  conduct,  morals  and 
traveled  "from  pillar  to  post,"  day  and  night,  in  the  discharge  of  their 
duties,  and  paid  their  expenses  from  the  salary  they  were  receiving  as 
clerks  in  charge,  which  was  very  inadequate,  by  living  on  hopes,  sleep- 
ing on  piles  of  mail,  dreaming  of  "Delmonico's"  and  of  reposing  in  the 
favored  guest  chamber  of  the  "Waldorf  Astoria." 

Consider  the  character,  responsibilities,  and  hardships  of  their 
assignment ;  the  knowledge  and  capacity — mental  and  physical — they 
had  and  exercised ;  the  unending  hours  of  duty — for  they  had  no  tours 
or  reliefs ;  the  expenses  that  could  not  be  avoided ;  their  fidelity,  in- 
tegrity, and  loyalty;  cheerful  obedience  and  self-forgetfulness  in  their 
devotion  to  the  advancement  of  the  service  in  usefulness,  and  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  there  never  was,  and  never  will  be,  another  corps 
of  employees  so  able,  successful,  and  faithful,  paid  so  inadequately  as 


30 

this  one  was  until  the  fifty-sixth  Congress  in  1900  and  1901  passed  a 
bill  increasing  their  salaries  to  $1,600  per  annum,  and  allowed  actual 
traveling  expenses,  not  exceeding  $3.00  per  diem.  This  was  a  splen- 
did battle  won,  and  all  who  participated  in  it  on  our  side  were  happy. 
Mr.  Jameson's  term  was  short,  but  he  was  active  all  the  time, 
and  was  what  might  be  termed  preventive  medicine.  The  following 
is  the  statistical  record  of  his  administration — January  1,  1885,  to 
February  4,  1887: 

No.  of  employees  January  1,  1885   4,175 

No.  of  employees  February  4,  1887   4,735 

Increase  for  the  35  months  about ~              560 

Average  annual  increase  about   268 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail  January  1,  1885 119,120 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail  February  4,  1887 128,033 

Increase  for  the  25  months  about 8,913 

Average  annual  increase  about   4,278 

Annual  miles  carrying  mail  Jan.  1,  1885,  about 147,226,766 

Annual  miles  carrying  mail  Feb.  4,  1887,  about 167,694,627 

Increase  for  the  25  months  about 20,467,861 

Average  annual  increase  about   9,824,573 

Pieces  of  mail  distributed  last  half  of  fiscal  year  1885.  .  2,474,024,700 

Errors  in  distribution  for  same  period   443,852 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error   5,574 

Pieces  of  mail  distributed  during  fiscal  year  1886 5,329,521,475 

Errors  in  distribution,  same  period   1,260,443 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error 4,228 

Pieces  of  mail  distributed  the  first  7  months  1887 3,413,313,197 

Errors  in  distribution,  same  period    1,011,864 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error  3,373 

Increase  in  pieces  distributed  during  the  25  months.  .  .  .  900,086,499 

Average   annual   increase    432,041,508 

Average  annual  increase  of  errors,  same  period  406,518 

Average  annual  decrease  of  pieces  correct  to  each  error  1,056 

No.  of  case  examinations,  permanent,  last  half  1885...  2,744 

No.  of  cards  handled,  same  period 2,844,328 

No.   correctly  distributed    2,338,945 

Average  per  cent,  correct   82.23 

No.  of  case  examinations,  probationers,  last  half  1885.  ,  1,658 

No.  of  cards  handled,  same  period 1,226,314 

No.  handled  correctly    835,540 

Average  per  cent,  correct  68.13 


Hon.  Thomas  E.  Nash 

sixth  General  Superintendent  R.  M.  S. 


31 

No.  of  case  examinations,   permanent,   first   7   months 

1887    3,836 

No.  of  cards  handled^  same  period  3,801,9G3 

No.  of  cards  handled  correctly  3,326,852 

Average  per  cent,  correct  87.50 

No.  of  case  examinations,  probationers,  first  7  months 

1887    2,614 

No.  of  cards  handled,  same  period 2,117,997 

No.  correctly  handled   1,717,473 

Average  per  cent,  correct   81.09 

Increase  per  cent,  correct,  permanent,  for  the  25  months  .5 

Average  annual  increase  per  cent,  correct,  about 2  1-3 

Increase  per  cent,  correct,  probationers,  for  the  25  months  13 

Average  annual  increase  per  cent,  correct,  about 6 

Pieces  of  mail  separated  for  immediate  city  delivery,  by 
carrier,   in   railway   post   offices,   January    1,    1885, 

to  February  4,  1887 255,996,940 

Being  40,869,725  for  last  half  fiscal  year  1885 ; 
129,025,155    for    the    fiscal    year    1886;    and 
86,076,732  for  the  first  7  months  1887 
Average  annual  pieces  of  mail  separated  for  immediate 

city   delivery    122,866,368 

Average  annual  increase  from  the  close  of  Mr.  Thomp- 
son's administration  to  the  close  of  Mr  Jameson's.  .        63,270,056 
The  number  of  packages,  pouches,  and  other  pieces  of 

registered  mail  handled  during  the  fiscal  year  1885  16,614,177 
421,249  less  than  during  1884,  and  the  fiscal 
year  1886  showed  a  further  decrease  of  289,608 
pieces;  this  decline  was  due  to  extensions  of 
the  through  registered  pouch  and  inner  regis- 
tered sack  systems,  which  made  many  of  the 
packages  theretofore  handled  separately  avail- 
able to  them,  and  as  they  had  numbers  or 
addresses  of  their  own,  the  numbers  of  record 
in  railway  post  offices  fell  off,  though  the  pieces 
actually  mailed  increased  largely. 
Mr.  Jameson  was  a  soldier,  from  Wisconsin,  during  the  Civil  War. 

THOMAS  E.  NASH 

of  Wisconsin  was  appointed  to  succeed  Mr.  Jameson  and  en- 
tered upon  the  duties  of  the  office  February  14,  1887 ;  he  was 
an    able    business    man    of    excellent    sense    and    judgment;     a    man 


32 

of  strong  convictions  and  determination ;  he  was  not  in  the  service  for 
blood,  and  proved  it  by  championing  the  cause  of  faithful  and  efficient 
employees,  and  by  separating  himself  from  the  very  honorable  position 
he  had  occupied  for  a  brief  time  only,  and  in  which  he  had  hoped  to 
make  a  record  that  would  be  a  credit  to  himself  and  friends,  rather 
than  scuttle  the  ship  he  commanded,  by  discharging  crews  that  were, 
in  the  main,  thoroughly  disciplined,  and  efficient,  and  taking  on  those 
that  in  the  main  would  be  undisciplined,  uneducated,  and  consequently 
incompetent.  Undoubtedly  he  would  have  continued  in  the  office  if 
permitted  to  conduct  it  as  he  believed  the  best  interests  of  public  and 
private  business  demanded,  but  he  was  not  willing  to  sacrifice  those  in- 
terests to  advance  the  selfish  aspirations  of  any  set  of  men,  and  when 
his  business  judgment  clashed  with  what  some  considered  party  fealty 
— a  grievous  misconception  of  the  facts — he  re-entered  business  pur- 
suits, and  I  am  sure  that  all  who  know  of  his  courageous  stand  rejoice 
that  he  has  been  successful.  He  has  my  most  profound  respect,  and 
best  wishes  for  a  long,  happy  and  prosperous  life. 

During  his  general  superintendency  the  great  strike  of  the  Broth- 
erhood of  Engineers  and  Firemen,  of  which  Messrs.  Arthur  and 
Sargent  were  the  respective  chiefs,  against  the  Chicago,  Burlington  & 
Quincy  railroad  was  ordered,  and  met  by  that  company,  and  a  desper- 
ate conflict  between  the  two  forces  was  waged  for  some  time.  The 
strike  commenced  about  March  1st,  1888,  and  before  it  closed  had  ex- 
tended to  some  other  lines — the  Santa  Fe  for  one — and  became  em- 
barrassing because  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  was,  as  it  is  now,  the  route  of  the  fast 
mail  between  Chicago  and  Union  Pacific  Transfer,  Iowa.  We  felt  the 
eflFect  of  the  strike,  first,  a  day  or  two  after  it  moved  out  in  the  open, 
through  the  stoppage  of  the  train  carrying  the  Chicago,  Forreston  & 
Dubuque  railway  post  office  at  a  place  a  little  north  of  west  of  Aurora, 
111.  This  was  then  the  Chicago  &  Dubuque  night  line  R.  P.  O.  and 
important.  The  report  of  this  interference  with  the  mail  was  received 
next  morning.  After  reading  it  I  visited  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  in 
Chicago,  and  sent  my  card  up  to  Mr.  Arthur's  rooms  and  was  invited 
up.  The  conference  that  ensued  was  pleasant  but  earnest.  I  stated 
our  grievance ;  he  disclaimed  responsibility  for  it,  but  said  he  would 
see  that  it  did  not  occur  again,  and  he  took  measures  at  once  to  prevent 
it ;  but  they  were  not  effective,  for  the  train  was  stopped  the  following 
night,  and  my  visit  to  Chief  Arthur  was  repeated.  This  time  he  sent 
men  out  to  see  that  his  forces  understood  they  were  not  to  interfere 
with  the  mail,  and  assured  me  that  their  men  would  not  be  withdrawn 
from  the  Chicago  &  Union  Pacific  Transfer  fast  mail.  Being  super- 
intendent at  Chicago,  I  kept  General  Superintendent  Nash  informed 


33 

of  the  exact  situation  every  clay,  and  after  the  Sante  Fe  became  in- 
volved he  came  out  and  remained  with  us  a  few  days,  bringing  a  con- 
fidential decision  framed  to  meet  emergencies,  affecting  the  mails,  due 
to  possible  hasty  or  ill-considered  action  on  the  part  of  either  party  to 
the  controversy. 

After  Mr.  Nash  returned  to  Washington,  the  daily  telegraphic 
reports  of  the  situation  were  resumed  and  continued  until  the  strike 
ended. 

The  schedule  between  New  York  and  St.  Louis  was  improved 
during  this  administration,  and  a  fast  mail,  St.  Louis  to  Kansas  City, 
Mo.,  on  the  track  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  railway  established ;  it  de- 
parted from  St.  Louis  at  3  :00  a.  m.,  fifteen  minutes  after  the  arrival 
of  the  Pennsylvania  fast  mail  from  New  York,  and  arrived  at  Kansas 
City  at  11:00  a.  m.,  making  connections  with  trains  bound  north, 
west,  and  southwest.    This  was  a  valuable  improvement. 

This  administration  covered  a  period  of  one  year,  three  months 
and  nineteen  days ;  its  statistical  record  is : 
No.  of  employees,  February  15,  1887,  the  opening  day.  .  4,744 

No.  June  30,  end  of  the  fiscal  year  1887 4,851 

No.  of  employees  June  4,  1888,  the  closing  day 5,077 

No.  June  30,  end  of  the  fiscal  year  1888 5,094 

Increase  during  administration    333 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail  Feb.  4,  1887 138,038 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail  June  30,  1888 143,713 

Increase  for  the  17  months   15,675 

Annual  miles  of  mail  carried  by  railroad  Feb.  4,  1887.  .  167,694,627 
Annual  miles  of  mail  carried  by  railroad  June  30,  1888.  .      185,485,783 

Increase  for  the  17  months 17,791,156 

Pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed  from  Feb.  4  to  June 

30,  1887    2,438,080,860 

Errors  in  distribution  for  same  period   722,753 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error   3,373 

Pieces  distributed  for  the  whole  fiscal  year  1887 5,851.394,057 

Errors  in  distribution,  same  period 1,734,617 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error 3,373 

Pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed  during  fiscal  year  1888  6,545,876,202 

Errors  in  distribution,  same  period   1,765,821 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error  3,707 

Increase  in  distribution  for  the  17  months   911,929,055 

Increase  in  errors,  same  period  228,779 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error  for  the  whole  time 3,542 

Increase  of  pieces  correct  to  each  error 169 


34 

No.  of  case  examinations,  permanents,  Feb.  4  to  June 

30,  1887    2,740 

Cards    handled    2,715,688 

Correctly    handled    2,376,328 

Average  per  cent,  correct  87.50 

No.  of  case  examinations,  probationers,  same  period.  .  .  1,867 

Cards   handled    1,512,855 

Correctly  handled   1,226,765 

Average  per  cent,  correct   81.09 

No.  of  case  examinations,  permanents,  fiscal  year  1888.  .  7,809 

Cards   handled    7,917,904 

Correctly   handled    7,165,988 

Average  per  cent,  correct 90.50 

No.  of  case  examinations,  probationers,  same  period.  .  .  5,633 

Cards    handled 4,092,350 

Correctly    handled    3,223,964 

Average  per  cent,  correct  78.78 

Increase  per  cent,  permanents,  correct  for  17  months.  .  .  3.00 

Decrease  per  cent,  probationers,  correct  for  17  months.  .  2.31 
Pieces  of  mail  separated  for  immediate  city  delivery  by 
carriers  in  railway  post  offices  Feb.  4,  1887,  to  June 

30,  1888   204,594,705 

Being  61,483,380  for  the  last  five  months  of  the 

fiscal  year  1887,  and  204,594,705  for  the  fiscal 

year  1888. 

The  number  of  registered  packages,  through  registered 

pouches  and  inner  registered  sacks  handled  by  the 

railway  mail  service  during  the   17  months  of  the 

administration  of  Mr.  Nash  was 24,063,802 

W.  L.  BANCROFT 
succeeded  to  the  office  of  General  Superintendent  June  5,  1888, 
and  was  succeeded  March  19,  1889.  The  only  thing  I  can  say 
in  commendation  of  his  administration  is,  it  was  brief.  I  do 
not  wish  to  say  anything  harsh,  but  it  was  the  first,  after  the  railway 
post  office  was  inaugurated,  that  threw  up  its  hands,  and  apparently 
permitted  efficient  and  well  behaved  clerks,  who  had  spent  years  in 
perfecting  themselves  to  discharge  all  their  duties  acceptably  to  the 
people  and  their  superiors,  to  be  removed  without  protest.  The  only 
comfort  there  is  in  the  recollection  is  the  assurance  that  Providence  has 
the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  people  and  nations  in  its  keeping,  and 
that  experience  is  an  excellent  schoolmaster. 


Hon.  W.  L.  Bancroft 

Seventh  General  Superintendent  K.  M.  S. 


Hun.  J.  LowRiE  Bell 

Kighth  General  Superintendent  R.  M.  S. 


35 

J.  LOWRIE  BELL 

succeeded  to  the  General  Superintendency  March  20,  1889.  He 
was  without  experience  in  the  railway  mail  service,  which  is 
as  essential  to  a  real  understanding  and  consequently  to  the  best 
management  of  that  system  of  skilled  labor,  as  it  is  to  success  in 
most  if  not  all  professions.  It  has  been  repeatedly  demonstrated 
that  no  matter  how  marked  one's  natural  ability  to  command  and  man- 
age may  be  in  any  calling  requiring  cultivated  brain  and  brawn,  he 
cannot  be  as  effective  without  as  with  education  and  actual  experience. 

The  great  generals  of  our  wars  would  not  have  attained  their 
highest  rank  had  they  entered  upon  their  careers  without  military  edu- 
cation and  actual  experience  in  camps  and  on  battlefields  in  actual  war ; 
so  with  clergymen,  lawyers,  surgeons,  physicians,  architects  and  build- 
ers ;  each  one  who  enters  a  profession  may  be  led  to  the  one  he  chooses 
by  natural  genius  in  that  direction,  but  he  will  not  be  as  successful  in  it 
without  as  with  training,  in  which  large  experience  is  woven. 

There  has  been  no  time  in  many  years,  when  a  vacancy  in  any 
office  of  the  service,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  could  not  have  been 
filled  better  by  promoting  the  refined  material  within,  than  by  the  in- 
troduction of  raw  material  from  without;  besides  the  latter  procedure 
is  unjust,  detrimental  and  uncalled  for  in  such  a  magnificent  service, 
whose  distinction  rests  upon  the  fact  that  it  moves  upv/ard  all  the  time 
through  the  honest  and  intelligent  skilled  labor  of  its  corps  of  more 
than  sixteen  thousand  of  the  best  trained  and  brightest  men  engaged 
in  any  vocation. 

The  service  passed  under  Mr.  Bell's  supervision  much  impaired  in 
efficiency,  and  in  a  somewhat  demoralized  condition,  but  he  was  a  man 
of  indomitable  energy  and  courage,  of  great  capacity  for  mental  labor, 
and  was  trained  in  the  field  of  railroad  transportation ;  had  full  con- 
fidence in  himself,  was  ambitious,  restive  under  restraint,  and  some- 
what intolerant;  was  a  good  organizer  and,  withal,  of  a  kindly  nature. 

He  served  as  an  officer  in  emergency  regiments  during  the  Antie- 
tam  and  Gettysburg  campaigns  of  the  Civil  War,  in  both  of  which  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania  was  imperiled,  and  served  well  and  faithfully. 

Of  the  nine  division  superintendents  in  office  at  the  close  of  Mr. 
Thompson's  administration,  only  two  remained  when  Mr.  Bell  entered 
upon  his  duties;  all  of  these  had  been  in  the  service  many  years,  and 
had  risen  grade  by  grade  during  that  time  from  the  lowest  to  the  high- 
est office,  save  one,  on  merit  alone. 

Of  the  4,175  clerks  employed  when  Mr.  Thompson  retired  from 
the  railway  mail  service  proper,  only  1,250  were  continued  until  Mr. 


36 

Bell's  administration  began.  A  large  majority  of  those  employed  up 
to  March,  1885,  were  excellent  clerks;  most  of  them  had  been  drilled 
and  trained  for  years ;  a  large  per  cent,  of  those  who  were  lacking  in 
capacity  or  were  habitual  drinkers  of  intoxicants,  or  not  suited  to  the 
service  in  other  ways,  had  been  winnowed  out,  but  some  were  in;  if 
these  had  been  taken  and  the  useful  left,  no  one  could  have  found  fault. 
As  soon  as  inducted  into  office  Mr.  Bell  took  into  consideration 
the  advisability  of  reinstating  the  superintendents,  and  did  reinstate  all 
but  two.  The  resignations  of  the  two  superintendents,  who  succeeded 
these  two,  were  accepted,  and  the  vacancies  filled  by  promotion  of  two 
employees,  who  had  served  in  lower  positions  long  and  efficiently.  The 
two  who  passed  from  Mr.  Thompson's  to  Mr.  Bell's  administration 
were  continued  as  superintndents — one  until  death  called  him  home — 
the  other  succeeded  Mr.  Bell  when  he  was  appointed  Second  Assistant 
Postmaster  General  and  retired  from  the  General  Superintendency, 
after  serving  seventeen  years  in  that  office,  on  account  of  continued  ill 
health. 

In  November,  1888,  two  additional  divisions  were  organized,  with 
headquarters  in  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  and  Fort  Worth,  Tex.,  respectively. 
Those  who  had  been  placed  in  charge  of  them  retired  in  March,  1889, 
and  were  succeeded  by  two  employees  who  had  seen  much  service  and 
were  selected  for  promotion  because  of  experience  and  believed  adaptr- 
ability  for  the  office. 

The  enthusiasm  and  activity  manifested  by  the  preceding  admin- 
istration in  retiring  employees^  who  had  become  indispensable  to  busi- 
ness and  social  intercourse,  simply  to  gratify  partisan  feeling,  undoubt- 
edly aroused  a  spirit  of  retaliation  that  could  not  be  gratified  with  due 
cautionary  regard  for  fitness  and  justice  in  the  limited  time  intervening 
between  the  inauguration  of  President  Harrison,  March  4,  1889,  and 
May  1,  1889,  the  date  the  railway  mail  service  found  shelter  within 
the  classified  civil  service  order  of  President  Cleveland,  dated  January 
4,  1889,  and  intended  to  become  effective  March  15th  of  the  same  year, 
but  which  was  postponed  to  the  first  of  the  following  May,  by  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  on  request  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission,  to  enable 
that  body  to  organize  boards  of  examiners  throughout  the  country  to 
examine  applicants  for  admission  to  the  service,  and  to  forward  the 
papers  to  the  Commission  at  Washington,  D.  C,  for  inspection  by 
experts,  preparatory  to  the  creation  of  an  eligible  register  from  which 
certifications  were  to  be  made  to  establish  and  maintain  a  certified  sub- 
stitute list  from  which  regular  probationary  appointments  were  to  be 
made  in  accordance  with  prescribed  rules,  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  regu- 


37 

lar  force,  to  equip  new  routes  as  they  were  established  and  to  make 
additional  appointments  to  old  routes  as  they  might  be  needed. 

The  lack  of  due  deliberation  in  making  removals  of  clerks  ap- 
pointed subsequent  to  March  4,  1885,  and  in  the  reinstatement  of  those 
appointed  previous  thereto,  but  removed  between  March  5,  1885,  and 
May  1,  1889,  was  not  in  the  interest  of  the  service  nor  just;  but,  I 
presume,  was  quite  natural  from  a  human  standpoint,  being  in  accord 
with  the  old  Mosaic  law,  "eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand, 
foot  for  foot,"  which,  thank  God,  has  been  an  outcast  from  the  railway 
mail  service  for  many  years.  Much  was  done  immediately  after- 
wards to  rectify  this  haste  and  injustice.  There  were  many 
who  believed  that  discrimination  in  making  removals  and  reinstate- 
ments, based  upon  capacity,  health,  knowledge,  and  habits,  should  be 
exercised  carefully  in  that  emergency ;  to  them  two  wrongs  could  not 
make  one  right,  and  they  used  their  influence  in  favor  of  careful  selec- 
tion, but  it  did  not  control  as  well  as  it  should. 

In  replying  to  a  letter  received  from  a  gentleman  close  to  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  before  and  after  his  inauguration,  the  writer  said,  under 
date  of  January,  1889  : 

"The  most  expeditious  way  to  restore  the  service  to  its  former 
efificiency  is  to  reinstate  such  of  the  old  clerks  as  were  competent  and 
of  good  habits.  This  cannot  be  accomplished  unless  the  rules  are  sus- 
pended, because  with  them  in  force  if  they  come  back,  they  can  come 
as  probationers  only,  and  those  who  are  desirable  would  not  wish  to 
return  under  those  conditions,  nor  do  I  think  it  would  be  just  to  expect 
them  to.  The  greatest  care  should  be  exercised  in  determining  who 
may  come  back.  Some  who  were  removed  were  incompetent,  some 
had  bad  habits,  and  a  few  were  insubordinate ;  the  restoration  of  those 
who  were  retired  under  those  conditions  would  be  a  detriment,  rather 
than  a  benefit,  to  the  service.  The  fact  that  a  clerk  was  removed  does 
not,  taken  alone,  constitute  a  reason  sufficient  to  justify  his  reinstate- 
ment. Very  respectfully, 

(Signed)       James  E.  White." 

In  March  of  the  same  year  the  writer  included  the  following 
paragraph  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  J.  Lowrie  Bell : 

"Permit  me  to  invite  your  attention  to  the  necessity  of  determin- 
ing, by  close  inspection  of  records,  who  of  the  clerks  that  have  been 
removed,  may  be  returned  to  the  service  with  reasonable  expectation 
that  such  action  will  be  beneficial."       *       *       *       * 

Very  respectfully, 

(Signed)     James  E.  White, 

Superintendent." 


38 

The  failure  to  fully  follow  the  advice  of  the  many  interested  busi- 
ness people,  was  responsible  for  the  removal  of  some  excellent,  and 
the  reinstatement  of  some  very  poor  material ;  afterwards  some  of  the 
best  of  the  former  were  reinstated  and  some  of  the  latter  removed  on 
the  recommendation  of  the  division  superintendents;  later  others  of 
the  former  class  passed  the  civil  service  examination  and  their  names 
were  entered  in  the  eligible  register,  which,  as  I  have  said,  is  the  base 
of  supply  for  the  certified  substitute  list,  and  which  in  turn  is  the  source 
from  which  vacancies  in  the  corps  of  regular  employees  are  filled  and 
additional  appointments  drawn  in  the  manner  prescribed  in  the  civil 
service  rules. 

I  am  justified,  I  believe,  in  saying  that  when  these  changes  were 
made,  and  the  service  was  within  the  full  influence  of  the  civil  service 
methods  ordained,  the  employees  were  about  equally  divided  in  politi- 
cal faith  between  the  two  great  political  parties.  Since  then  all  ap- 
pointments have  been  made  in  pursuance  of  these  methods,  which 
constitute  it  an  ofifense  for  any  person  in  the  executive  civil  service  to 
discriminate  against  or  in  favor  of  an  applicant,  eligible,  or  employee  in 
the  classified  service,  because  of  his  political  or  religious  opinion  or 
affiliation,  or  color ;  so  that  it  is  now  impossible  to  know  how  the  ser- 
vice is  divided  politically. 

With  these  changes ;  with  experienced  captains  in  charge  of  the 
ships  of  the  line  once  more;  with  the  application  of  a  sound  civil  ser- 
vice system  in  which  protection  stands  for  real  protection ;  with  the 
warm  interest  manifested  in  the  success  of  the  service  by  Postmaster 
General  Wanamaker  and  the  business  public,  the  old  inspiration  re- 
vived and  was  intensified. 

To  inspire  rivalry  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  of  distribution, 
and  in  work  and  records,  the  fifth  division,  by  the  advice  of  Superin- 
tendent Burt,  hung  up  medals  for  best  records  during  the  calendar 
year  1889,  which  were  presented  at  a  splendid  reception  held  the  eve- 
ning of  January  15,  1890,  in  the  headquarters  of  the  Superintendent. 
There  was  a  large  attendance  of  the  employees  of  the  division ;  their 
wives,  mothers,  daughters  and  sweethearts,  and  a  number  of  official 
guests,  among  whom  I  remember  Mr.  J.  Lowrie  Bell,  General  Superin- 
tendent, Mr.  R.  C.  Jackson,  Mr.  L.  M.  Terrell,  and  myself  Tthen  Sup- 
erintendent of  the  sixth  division).  I  presume  other  superintendents 
were  present ;  if  so,  I  cannot  recall  them,  a  fact  that  I  sincerely  regret. 
The  occasion  was  very  enjoyable  and  impressed  me  so  thoroughly  as 
being  one  of  the  most  commendable  acts  taken  to  increase  interest  in 
the  service  then,  that  I  applied  the  medal  feature  of  it  to  my  own 
division  in  1890. 


39 

Following  the  reception  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  Postmaster  General 
Wanamaker  ofifered  twelve  beautiful  gold  medals  as  rewards  for  best 
records,  "one  to  the  clerk  in  each  division  who  made,  during  the  calen- 
dar year  1890,  the  best  general  record  on  the  largest  number  of  cards, 
representing  post  offices  distributed  by  routes  or  by  counties,  modified  by 
the  class  of  the  clerk,  the  number  of  separations,  the  cards  per  minute 
cased  correctly,  the  error  slip  record,  and  the  car  work  of  the  clerk." 

The  twelfth  medal  was  to  be  awarded  "to  the  clerk  of  any  class  in 
any  division  who,  during  the  year,  correctly  distributed  in  the  shortest 
time  and  largest  number  of  separations,  cards  representing  the  greatest 
number  of  post  offices,  special  consideration  to  be  given  the  rapidity 
with  which  the  distribution  was  accomplished." 

These  contests  aroused  the  widest  interest  in  the  service  and  were 
the  cause,  in  part  at  least,  of  very  sharp  emulation  in  all  the  divisions, 
which  resulted  in  many  phenomenal  records  at  the  case.  As  a  natural 
result  this  was  reflected  in  the  general  work  as  soon  as  the  knowledge 
thus  obtained  had  time  to  ripen  in  the  crucible  of  application  and  ex- 
perience. 

During  this  administration  the  fast  mails  between  Omaha  and  San 
Francisco  via  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  railroads  and  Green  River, 
Wyo.,  and  Portland,  Ore.,  via  the  Union  Pacific,  the  Oregon  Short 
Line  and  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company  routes,  and  be- 
tween Chicago,  111.,  and  New  Orleans,  La.,  via  the  Illinois  Central 
railroad,  were  established ;  total  distance,  3,766  miles. 

Additional  railway  post  offices  were  authorized  on  the  New  York 
Central,  Boston  and  Albany,  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford; 
Pennsylvania  Company  between  Pittsburg  and  Chicago,  on  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  and  several  other  railroads,  which  are  embraced  with 
others  in  the  increased  mileage  given  below. 

The  statistical  record  of  the  eighteen  and  a  half  months  of  Mr. 
Bell's  administration  as  General  Superintendent  is  about  as  follows : 
When  Mr.  Bell  assumed  charge,  March  20,  1889,  the 

number  of  clerks  employed  were  about 5,348 

When  he  retired,  October  3,  1890,  there  were  about  .  . .  5,930 

An  increase  during  the  administration  of  about 582 

The  miles  of   railroad   upon   which   mail   was   carried, 

March  20,  1889,  was  about 148,530 

When  he  retired  from  the  office,  October  3,  1890,  it  was  155,913 

An  increase  in  the  eighteen  and  a  half  months  of 7,383 

The  annual  mileage  on  March  20,  1889,  was 198,963,182 

When  he  retired,  October  3,  1890,  it  was 218,692,505 


40 

An  increase  for  tlie  eighteen  and  a  half  months  of .  .  .  .  19,G9G,333 

And  an  average  annual  increase  of  12,775,992 

Pieces  of  mail   distributed,   fiscal  year  ended  June   30, 

1889    7,043,838,598 

Of  which  there  were  distributed  between  March  20  and 

June  30 1,817,751,249 

An  increase  over  the  same  period  of  1888  of 4,792,224 

And  for  the  whole  fiscal  year  of 497,962,396 

The  errors  in  distribution  for  the  whole  fiscal  year  were  1,808,825 

And  for  the  period  between  March  20  and  June  30,  1889  466,791 

Being  in  both  instances  one  error  to  each 3,895 

Correct,  an  increase  to  each  error  of 251 

Pieces  distributed  during  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1890  7,865,438,101 

Errors  in  this  distribution,  same  period   2,812,574 

Being  one  error  in  the  distribution  of  each 2,797 

A  decrease  in  pieces  correct  to  each  error  of 1,097 

And  an  increase  of  pieces  distributed  over  1889  of 821,599,503 

Pieces  of  mail  distributed  from  June  30  to  Oct.  4,  1890  2,212,431,912 

The  errors  made  in  distributing  the  same  numbered.  .  .  .  527,526 

Being  one  in  the  distribution  of  each   4,193 

An  increase  of  pieces  correct  to  each  error  for  1891  over 

1890  of    1,396 

Pieces  distributed  during  the  whole  fiscal  year  1891.  . .  .  8,564,252,563 

The  errors  made  in  this  distribution  amounted  to 2,042,049 

Being  one  error  in  the  distribution  of  each 4,193 

An  increase  of  pieces  correct  to  each  error  1891  over 

1890  of 1,396 

An  increase  in  the  number  of  pieces  distributed  during 

the  whole  fiscal  year  1891  of 698,814,462 

And  an  increase  June  30  to  October  4,  1891,  over  same 

period   1890  of    176,582,150 

The  increase  for  the  eighteen  and  a  half  months  of  this 

administration    was    832,037,326 

And  the  increase  in  errors  for  the  same  period  was  ....  830,237 
Average   pieces   correct   to   each   error    for   the    whole 

period,    about    3,628 

Being  a  decrease  in  pieces  correct  for  each  error  of  about  267 
No.    of   case   examinations,   permanents,    March   20   to 

June  30,  1889   '              1,403 

Cards   handled    1,537,715 

Correctly    handled    1,408,030 

Average  per  cent,  correct  91.57 


41 

No.  of  case  examinations,  probationers,  same  period.  .  .  1,873 

Cards   handled    1,226,476 

Correctly    handled    985,458 

Average  per  cent,  correct  80.35 

No.  of  case  examinations,  permanents,  fiscal  year  1890  8,959 

Cards    handled    10,936,679 

Correctly   handled    10,396,073 

Average  per  cent,  correct  94.11 

No.  of  case  examinations,  probationers,  fiscal  year,  1890  7,125 

Cards   handled 6,861,471 

Correctly    handled    6,763,741 

Average  per  cent,  correct   84.00 

No.  of  case  examinations  June  30  to  Oct.  3,  1890,  of 

fiscal  year  1891,  permanents   2,715 

Cards    handled    3,217,668 

Correctly   handled    3,138,629 

Average  per  cent,  correct   93.81 

No.  of  case  examinations,  probationers,  same  period.  .  927 

Cards   handled    867,714 

Correctly   handled    755,763 

Average  per  cent,   correct    88.87 

Increase  per  cent,  correct  made  by  permanents  during 

the  eighteen  and  a  half  months   2.24 

Increase  per  cent,  correct  made  by  probationers,  same 

period    8.52 

Pieces  of  mail  separated  for  immediate  city  delivery,  by 
carriers,  in  railway  post  offices  from  March  20,  1889, 

to  Oct.  4,  1890,  eighteen  and  a  half  months 333,589,511 

Being  43,024,209  for  the  period  from  March  20 
to  June  30,  1889,  and  226,429,575  for  the  fiscal 
year  1890,  also  64,135,727  for  the  period  June 
30  to  October  4,  1890,  being  part  of  the  fiscal 
year  1891. 
This  shows  an  annual  increase  during  Mr.  Bell's  ad- 
ministration of  about    60,000,000 

The  number  of  registered  packages  and  cases,  through 
registered  pouches  and  inner  registered  sacks  han- 
dled by  the  railway  mail  service  during  the  eighteen 
and  a  half  months  of  Mr.  Bell's  term  as  General  Su- 
perintendent was    27,051,965 

Being  4,722,627  for  the  period  from  March  20 
to  June  30,  1889,  and  17,714,501  for  the  fiscal 


42 

year  1890 ;  also  4,614,837  for  the  period  from 
June  30  to  October  4,  1890,  a  part  of  the  fiscal 
year  ended  June  30,  1891,  an  annual  increase 
during  Mr.  Bell's  administration  of  about....  698,256 

Mr.  J.  Lowrie  Bell  was  appointed  Second  Assistant  Postmaster 
General,  October  3,  1890. 

JAMES  E.  WHITE 
became  General  Superintendent,  by  regular  promotion,  October 
4,  1890.  He  was  appointed  a  route  agent  on  the  Chicago  and 
Northwestern  Railway  between  Cedar  Rapids  and  Boonesboro,  Iowa, 
March  5,  1866,  at  $800  per  annum ;  transferred  to  the  Clinton 
and  Boone  railway  post  office  in  September,  1866 ;  promoted  to 
class  three  at  $1,000  per  annum,  and  assigned  as  head  clerk.  Trans- 
ferred to  the  Chicago,  111.,  and  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  railway  post 
office,  at  same  class  and  assignment,  early  in  18G9.  Transferred  to  the 
Chicago,  III,  and  Iowa  City,  la.,  railway  post  office  at  same  class  and 
in  same  assignment  soon  thereafter,  cause  change  in  the  routing  of  the 
overland  letter  mail.  Transferred  to  the  Omaha,  Neb.,  and  Ogden, 
Utah,  railway  post  office  (Union  Pacific  Railroad)  April,  1870,  and 
promoted  to  chief  head  clerk,  headquarters  Omaha,  Neb.,  at  $1,400  per 
annum.  Promoted  to  Superintendent  railway  mail  service  at  Chicago, 
111.,  November  21,  1871,  of  the  division  then  known  as  the  Fifth,  after- 
wards as  the  Fourth,  and  later,  and  now  as  the  Sixth,  the  number 
changing  with  territorial  reorganizations  of  the  service.  Promoted  to 
General  Superintendent  railway  mail  service  October  4,  1890,  head- 
quarters Washington,  D.  C.  Resigned  February  4,  1907,  cause  ruined 
health.  Served  in  the  Civil  War — 1861  to  1865 — four  years  and  two 
months.  Entered  the  army  as  a  private  in  May,  1861 ;  honorably  dis- 
charged as  a  captain  in  1865.     Wounded. 

I  cheerfully  divide  the  credit  for  the  success  of  my  administration 
Vv'ith  everyone  connected  with  it  in  any  capacity,  who  was  faithful, 
efficient  and  loyal ;  doing  his  duty  as  he  was  given  to  see  it  but  in  the 
interest  of  the  public  always.  It  could  not  have  been  the  success  it 
was  but  for  the  able  division  superintendents  who  gave  me  their  earn- 
est support  during  the  seventeen  eventful  years  it  covered.  They  were, 
as  a  rule,  men  who  had  been  promoted  to  that  office  after  many  years 
of  experience  in  all  subordinate  positions  and  this  long  and  effective 
service  made  them  almost  invaluable.  Behind  them  stood  a  body  of 
chief  clerks  who  were  being  prepared  for  further  advancement  as  emer- 
gencies arose.  In  fact  the  whole  service  was  permeated  with  healthy 
ambition  and  was  progressive  individually  and  collectively. 


Captain  James  E.  White 

Ninth  General  Superintendent  R.  M.  S. 


43 

REMINISCENT. 

Previous  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War,  I  had  acquired 
sufficient  knowledge  of  a  trade  to  insure  me  a  good  living,  if  not  a 
competency,  during  a  fair  span  of  life,  after  reaching  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  if  my  health  remained  good  and  my  body  sound,  but  the 
war  came  on  with  a  rush  and  I  went  to  the  front  when  eighteen  and 
served  more  than  four  years,  in  the  3rd  and  13th  Regiments,  Iowa  In- 
fantry, returning  to  my  Iowa  home  in  August,  1865,  disabled  per- 
manently, and  with  hardly  any  income. 

It  therefore  became  necessary  for  me  to  prepare  to  earn  my 
living,  and  more,  if  possible,  through  some  avenue  not  yet  considered, 
and  after  mature  reflection  I  concluded  to  enter  school  and  remain 
there  until  I  had  acquired  a  fair  education,  and  then  to  study  law 
until  qualified  to  enter  upon  its  practice.  Accordingly,  I  entered  our 
high  school  and  came  to  an  understanding  with  Judge  Conckling — one 
of  the  leading  jurists  of  Iowa — to  enter  his  office  as  a  student  as  soon 
as  my  school  days  were  over.  Another  case  of  "Man  proposing  and 
God  disposing,"  as  is  shown  by  what  follows. 

One  afternoon,  early  in  March,  1866,  on  my  return  from  school, 
my  uncle,  with  whom  I  made  my  home,  handed  me  an  appointment  as 
a  route  agent  on  the  Chicago,  Iowa  &  Nebraska  R.  R.  (now  the  Chicago 
&  North  Western  R.  R.)  between  Cedar  Rapids  and  Boonesboro, 
Iowa,  vice  P.  W.  Randall,  resigned. 

I  knew  nothing  of  the  railway  mail  service,  had  never  seen  a  mail 
apartment  and  had  not  made  application  for  appointment  to  it,  or  to 
any  other  service.  I  had  determined  to  be  a  first-class  lawyer,  and  so 
1  expressed  surprise  that  an  appointment  should  be  sent  me  un- 
solicited, and  found  that  Judge  Conckling  and  my  kinsman  had  re- 
quested the  Hon.  J.  B.  Grinnell,  of  the  House  of  Representatives  from 
Iowa,  to  secure  it.  I  said  to  my  uncle  that  I  knew  nothing  about  the 
requirements  of  the  office,  but  as  my  wrist  was  still  suppurating  and 
abscesses  were  forming  occasionally,  and  I  could  not  turn  the  palm  of 
my  left  hand  upwards,  I  did  not  see  how  it  would  be  possible  for  me 
to  handle  the  mails,  but,  under  the  circumstances,  I  would  go  down  to 
Cedar  Rapids,  examine  the  work,  see  the  route  agent,  and  if  I  found 
there  was  a  probability  of  my  being  able  to  do  it,  would  qualify  and 
remain. 

Upon  reporting  at  the  postal  apartment  I  found  that  the  retiring 
agent  had  been  absent  for  some  time ;  that  he  was  represented  by  a 
substitute  named  Coulter — a  most  excellent  gentleman — who  was 
expecting  the  appointment  himself.     After  expressing  my  regret  that 


44 

he  was  disappointed,  I  explained  the  situation  to  him  and  said  I  would 
qualify  and  assume  charge  of  the  run;  that  if  he  would  remain  with 
me  two  weeks,  giving  me  instructions,  and  provide  me  with  a  list 
showing  the  disposition  to  be  made  of  local  mails  and  those  foreign 
to  the  line  as  well,  I  would  allow  him  the  salary  for  that  period  and 
twenty-five  dollars  additional,  and  if  I  could  not  fill  the  position 
properly  at  the  expiration  of  that  time  I  would  resign  in  his  favor  and 
request  my  friends  to  endorse  him  for  the  vacancy. 

This  was  agreeable  to  him,  and  he  did  his  part  pleasantly  and 
efficiently,  and  at  the  end  of  the  two  weeks  I  did  not  find  it  difficult  to 
perform  the  work  properly.  The  distribution  was  simple,  because  in 
the  beginning  of  my  service  it  was  purely  local.  There  were  no  cross 
lines,  the  bulk  of  the  mail  was  received,  made  up,  and  we  assorted  the 
packages  and  dispatched  them  to  the  head,  terminal  and  intermediate 
offices.  Those  that  were  received  from  these  offices  not  prepared  for 
delivery  we  distributed  and  dispatched  to  the  same  offices,  in  the 
aggregate,  to  be  delivered  to  their  patrons  or  to  be  forwarded  by  the 
star  routes  indicated. 

The  largest  portion  of  the  mail  handled  by  the  route  was 
made  up  in  the  Chicago  D.  P.  O.  and  in  the  Chicago  &  Clinton  R.  P. 
O.,  until  our  line  was  extended  eastward  to  Clinton,  on  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  designated  the  Clinton  &  Boone  R.  P.  O. 

The  car  to  which  the  post  office  apartment  was  assigned  was  occu- 
pied principally  as  a  smoker.  A  space  about  7x10  feet  in  dimension 
was  allotted  to  the  mails  and  opened  into  an  alley,  on  one  side  of  the 
apartment  leading  from  the  outside  platform  at  one  end  of  the  car  to 
the  smoker  which  occupied  the  full  width  of  the  car.  A  sliding  door 
opposite  the  one  opening  from  the  apartment  into  the  alley  enabled 
the  agent  to  exchange  mail  with  the  offices  on  one  side  of  the  track,  and 
a  similar  door  in  the  other  side  of  the  apartment  provided  for  ex- 
changes with  offices  on  that  side. 

The  "go-back"  was  exchanged  as  a  rule  at  the  meeting  point  by 
the  west  bound  route  agent  who  carried  his  return  across  the  open 
space  between  the  trains  and  delivered  it  to  the  east  bound  agent,  re- 
ceiving from  him  the  east  bound  return.  The  alley  side  of  both  apart- 
ments usually  faced  south,  so  that  the  agent  making  the  exchange  left 
his  by  the  door  on  the  north  side  after  slipping  the  bolt  in  the  door 
opening  on  the  alley.  This  facilitated  his  movements  and  protected 
the  mail  during  his  absence ;  it  also  enabled  him  to  throw  the  mail  into 
the  car  as  he  approached  it  on  his  return  and  by  grasping  the  perpen- 
dicular iron  rods  on  either  side  of  the  doorway  and  placing  one  foot 


45 

on  the  rod,  hanging  ten  inches  or  so  below  the  car  at  that  point,  follow 
it  in  without  letting  it  out  of  his  sight  a  moment. 

A  case  of  boxes,  each  about  a  foot  square  on  the  face,  was 
fastened  to  the  partition  separating  the  post  office  apartment  from  the 
smoker,  a  distributing  table,  upon  which  the  pouches  and  sacks  were 
emptied,  extended  the  full  length  of  the  case,  and  on  one  side  was  a 
letter  case  also  provided  with  a  distributing  table  and  facilities  for 
postmarking  letters  and  cancelling  stamps  on  those  mailed  at  the  car. 
Under  the  table  were  two  or  three  drawers  in  which  valuable  matter 
could  be  placed  and  locked  up.  In  those  days  this  space  and  the  facil- 
ities were  ample  to  accommodate  the  mail  received  and  the  distribu- 
tion. One  route  agent  could  perform  all  the  duties  of  the  run  with- 
out much  exertion  and  have  time  to  look  at  that  magnificent  prairie 
country,  and  to  think  of  things  pertaining  to  his  occupation  and 
otherwise. 

The  light  furnished  was  wretched.  Old  dingy  oil  lamps  were 
attached  to  the  sides  of  the  apartments,  as  near  the  cases  as  possible, 
and  gave  out  about  as  much  light  as  a  tallow  dip  of  the  third  magni- 
tude, with  an  eclipsed  moon  for  a  shade.  Fortunately  when  the  trains 
were  on  time  not  much  artificial  light  was  needed.  At  this  time  Iowa 
was  sparsely  settled  and  the  railroad  mileage  limited.  I  am  quite  sure 
that  the  Chicago,  Iowa  &  Nebraska  R.  R.  had  reached  the  most  west- 
erly point  of  any  under  construction  in  the  state  and  it  was  in  opera- 
tion to  Boone  only.  Stage  coaches  that  were  forerunners  of  the  ap- 
proaching trains  connected  with  them  and  carried  travelers  and  mail 
on  toward  the  setting  sun  under  the  crack  of  the  whip  and  the  sting  of 
the  spur  night  and  day  as  fast  as  hardy  animals  could  haul  and  carry 
them. 

Soon  after  assuming  the  entire  duties  of  my  run  I  got  out  of  the 
post  office  apartment  one  day  to  exchange  return  mails  at  the  meeting 
point  as  I  had  done  times  before  without  incident ;  this  time  the  train 
started  west  before  I  reached  it  and  I  made  a  dash  for  the  front 
platform,  throwing  the  mail  through  the  open  doorway  as  I  passed  it, 
mounted  the  platform  and  entered  the  alley  rapidly,  tried  the  door 
to  the  apartment  and  then  remembered  I  had  bolted  it  before  leaving 
the  car.  New  in  the  service,  not  well  acquainted  with  the  trainmen 
and  sensitive,  it  flashed  through  my  mind  if  I  pulled  the  bel!  cord  and 
stopped  the  train  it  would  be  a  violation  of  the  rules  of  the  company 
and  undoubtedly  offend  the  conductor. 

These  reflections  stung  my  pride  and  I  made  a  dash  for  the  plat- 
form again,  swung  off  the  steps  and  as  the  car  came  on  reached  up 


46 

high  above  my  head,  grasped  the  iron  rods  on  either  side  of  the  door- 
way, climbed  in  and  unbolted  the  door,  but  could  not  resume  work  for 
some  moments.  The  conductor  came  forward  shortly,  looked  in  and 
noticing  that  I  was  unstrung  asked  what  was  the  matter,  and  I 
told  him;  he  asked  why  I  had  not  pulled  the  bell  cord  and  I  told  him 
and  added  1  did  not  want  it  known  I  had  locked  myself  out.  He  said  I 
was  too  sensitive,  that  emergencies  sometimes  arose  which  justified 
the  violation  of  a  rule  and  if  I  was  similarly  situated  on  his  train  again 
to  pull  the  bell  cord. 

Mr.  Eddy,  who  was  the  senior  route  agent,  and  myself  took  care 
of  the  route  from  Cedar  Rapids  to  Boonesboro  until  the  fall  of  1866, 
when  it  was  extended  eastward  to  Clinton,  Iowa,  on  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  its  designation  changed  to  Clinton  &  Boone  R.  P.  O.,  then 
an  additional  crew  of  one  clerk  and  a  helper  were  appointed  to  it. 
The  character  of  the  work  was  changed  to  a  higher  grade,  became 
more  extensive  and  complicated,  and  the  salary  was  increased  from 
$800  to  $1000  per  annum. 

Doctor  Mathews,  of  the  Chicago  &  Clinton  R.  P.  O.,  a  thoroughly 
good  man  and  an  efficient  officer,  patient  and  kind,  was  detailed  by 
Mr.  Armstrong  to  instruct  us  in  railway  post  office  work.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  I  was  not  progressing  as  fast  as  I  ought,  and  one  night, 
when  we  were  alone  in  the  apartment,  I  said  to  him  I  did  not  think  I 
was  making  satisfactory  progress;  but  he  very  kindly  said  I  was 
among  the  "flyers,"  and  would  go  into  the  home  stretch  with  the  best. 

This  encouraged  me,  and  I  began  to  search  with  renewed  energy 
for  information  respecting  distribution — material  for  the  building  of 
schemes — Chicago  standpoint,  and  to  print  it  with  pen  and  ink  as  fast 
as  I  could  marshal  it  in  order,  in  a  book  especially  provided  for  the 
purpose.  I  had  much  information  and  many  schemes,  general  and 
standpoint,  in  this  book,  but  it  did  not  quite  suit  me,  so  I  commenced 
on  a  more  elaborate  one,  better  suited  to  the  class  of  distribution  I  was 
learning  and  making  voluntarily.  This  was  completed  in  1868-1869, 
and  I  presented  the  first  book  to  our  helper,  Mr.  Frank  M.  Journey. 
The  one  I  retained  embraced  ultimately  all  the  schemes  used  in  the 
Clinton  &  Boone,  the  Chicago  &  Cedar  Rapids,  and  the  Chicago  & 
Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.'s.  I  also  made  a  separate  scheme  of  everything 
west  of  the  Missouri  River  and^  when  assigned  to  the  last  mentioned 
route,  distributed  it. 

In  connection  with  the  above  it  will  be  well  to  remember  that 
no  schemes  were  printed  until  late  in  1868,  and  that  not  much  progress 
was  made  in  that  line  until  in  the  seventies.    Thus  it  will  be  seen  that 


47 

to  be  counted  worthy  one  found  it  important  to  mould  his  own 
schemes  out  of  material  collected  by  himself,  or  to  secure  assistance 
from  the  more  studious  and  determined. 

The  Ward  mail  catcher  service  was  established  early  in  1869. 
Previous  to  that  time  the  catching,  when  the  train  was  in  motion,  was 
done  with  the  arm,  and  the  person  who  acted  as  the  "crane"  held  the 
pouch  perpendicularly  in  such  a  way  that  the  route  agent  or  clerk 
might  pass  his  arm  around  the  pouch  and  close  in  on  it  as  the  human 
crane  relinquished  his  hold.  It  was  not  difficult  in  the  early  days  to 
do  this  if  the  person  holding  the  pouch  used  judgment  and  held  it 
right,  and  the  engineer  slackened  the  speed  of  the  train ;  sometimes, 
however,  the  pouch  was  held  wrong  and  a  failure  to  catch  was  the 
result.  I  remember  one  such  case  on  my  own  run.  A  post  office 
named  Cedar  Cross  Roads — now  known  as  Lamoille — had  been  es- 
tablished on  a  farm  a  few  miles  west  of  Marshalltown,  Iowa,  just  at 
the  point  where  the  west-bound  train  commenced  to  climb  the  hill  to 
State  Center,  and  the  farmer,  who  was  an  elderly  gentleman,  had  been 
appointed  postmaster.  After  receiving  the  appointment  he  came  to 
the  train  at  the  depot  in  Marshalltown  to  ascertain  how  to  hold  the 
pouch  and  to  arrange  for  his  first  exchange  with  me  on  my  next  west- 
bound trip.  I  showed  him  how  to  do  it,  but  his  heart  must  have  failed 
him,  for  he  placed  the  pouch  on  the  end  of  a  long  pole  and  stood  back 
as  far  as  the  pole  would  allow  and  held  the  pouch  up  to  the  side  door. 
1  did  not  attempt  to  make  the  catch,  but  wrote  the  postmaster  a  note 
explaining  the  matter  further  and  provided  him  with  a  diagram. 

When  I  came  west  next  he  was  standing  on  an  improvised  plat- 
form not  far  from  a  post  he  had  sunk  in  the  ground  and  through  the 
top  of  which  he  had  bored  a  hole  parallel  with  the  track  and  driven  a 
smooth  stick  so  that  one  end  of  it  stuck  out  a  foot  to  the  east  and  the 
other  about  the  same  length  to  the  west.  It  was  his  intention  to  hang 
the  pouch  on  the  west  side  of  the  post  for  the  west-bound  exchange 
and  on  the  east  side  for  the  east-bound  exchange.  As  I  approached 
the  arrangement  I  could  see  that  a  catch  could  not  be  made  without 
encircling  the  pouch  and  the  post  with  the  arm,  and  as  I  did  not  want 
to  enter  the  Kingdom  then  I  shook  my  head  and  wrote  him  a  third 
note.  When  I  went  west  next  he  stood  on  the  platform  holding  the 
pouch  so  nearly  correct  that  I  thought  I  could  make  the  catch.  It  was 
not  quite  right,  however,  his  arm  did  not  clear  the  pouch,  as  it  should, 
and  just  as  I  was  in  the  act  of  encircling  it  the  car  swung  slightly  to 
the  right,  and  I  closed  in  on  the  pouch  and  his  arm,  lifted  him  from 
the  ground,  and  let  him  drop  in  a  ditch  by  the  side  of  the  track.    If  I 


48 

could  have  selected  the  spot  and  held  on  to  him  until  the  train  reached 
it,  I  could  not  have  found  a  safer  place  to  drop  him  and  save  myself. 
After  that  his  daughter  attended  to  the  exchange  and  the  trouble  was 
reduced  to  the  minimum. 

The  Chicago,  Iowa  &  Nebraska  R.  R.  was  completed  to  Council 
Blufifs  in  1867,  I  believe,  and  made  connection  with  the  Union  Pacific 
railroad  at  that  point.  The  overland  mails  were  dispatched  by  the  C. 
I.  &  N.  R.  R.  after  that  date,  and  a  line  of  full  railway  postal  cars 
was  established  between  Boone  and  Council  Bluffs  in  which  to  dis- 
tribute the  mail  east  and  west-bound.  Experienced  clerks  were  trans- 
ferred from  other  lines  farther  east  to  ecjuip  it  efficiently. 

For  two  years  and  a  half  after  the  Clinton  &  Boone  R.  P.  O.  was 
ordered  I  ran  in  it  and  made  my  home  in  Clinton,  Iowa.  I  often  came 
in  contact  with  the  clerks  in  the  Chicago  &  Clinton  R.  P.  O.,  and 
through  them  with  the  most  expert  clerks  assigned  to  railway  post 
offices  centering  at  Chicago.  From  them  I  gathered  information  that 
I  utilized  then  and  subsequently  in  compiling  schemes  that  were  very 
useful  to  me  then  and  later,  and  the  practical  railway  post  office  work 
we  were  taking  up  as  fast  as  our  minds  could  hold  it  was  fitting  us 
mentally  and  physically  to  give  a  more  correct  and  complicated  dis- 
tribution of  important  mails  that  were  increasing  in  magnitude  rapidly. 

We  no  longer  threw  mail  needing  distribution  to  advance  it  into 
our  head  and  terminal  offices  for  them  to  dispose  of  through  distribut- 
ing post  offices,  railway  post  offices,  and  route  agencies.  We  were 
beginning  to  distribute  our  own  mails  from  our  own  standpoint,  and 
those  that  were  not  local  we  gave  in  the  main  a  mild  general  distribu- 
tion. We  received  massed  instead  of  made-up  mail,  and  dispatched 
made-up  instead  of  massed  mail  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  now, 
early  in  1869,  it  was  announced  that  the  three  R.  P.  O.'s  of  this  line, 
viz. :  The  Chicago  &  Clinton  R.  P.  O.,  Clinton  &  Boone  R.  P.  O.,  and 
Boone  &  Council  Bluffs  R.  P.  O.,  would  be  reorganized  into  two  and 
be  designated  the  Chicago  &  Cedar  Rapids  and  the  Cedar  Rapids  & 
Council  Bluffs  R.  P.  O.'s,  and  I  was  assigned  to  the  former,  but  only 
for  a  brief  time ;  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  R.  R.  imme- 
diately began  building  a  line  of  railway  post  office  cars  expressly  to 
accommodate  the  distribution  of  overland  letter  mail  moving  in  both 
directions,  and  the  Department  accepted  them  and  designated  the  route 
the  Chicago  &  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.  Some  of  the  clerks  who  had  been 
handling  these  mails  in  the  Boone  &  Council  Bluffs  R.  P.  O.  were 
transferred  to  this  line;  some  were  transferred  to  it  from  other  lines. 
]\Ty  transfer  was  from  the  Chicago  &  Cedar  Rapids  R.  P.  O.    During 


49 

the  time  I  remained  upon  that  Hne,  and  after  reporting  to  the  Chicago 
&  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.,  I  spent  part  of  my  late  afternoons  and  early 
evenings  in  Chicago,  where  I  came  in  contact  with  so  many  clerks 
who  had  benefited  by  considerable  experience  in  the  Chicago  D.  P.  O., 
and  in  the  first  railway  post  offices  inaugurated,  that  I  found  that  all 
one  had  to  do  to  become  acquainted  with  the  distribution  was  to  ask 
questions,  to  note  down  the  answers,  and  to  verify  their  correctness. 
This  I  did,  and  entered  them  in  my  book  to  refer  to  afterwards. 

The  Chicago  &  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.  commenced  service  early  in 
1869,  and  the  force  of  clerks  selected  to  equip  it  was  on  hand  in  ad- 
vance. Mr.  Walter  L.  Hunt — afterwards  superintendent  of  the 
Seventh  Division  and  the  first  to  place  an  "iron  bag  rack"  in  a  postal 
car — was  my  assistant,  and  I  was  very  fond  of  him;  he  was  a  bright, 
studious,  and  competent  clerk,  and  an  attractive  and  agreeable  com- 
panion. In  fact  the  line  with  few  exceptions  was  equipped  with  clerks 
carrying  full  cargoes  of  sand  and  they  were  boiling  over  with  vigor. 
The  large  number  of  letters  received  per  clerk  fell  into  order  in  the 
distributing  cases  under  the  educated  and  systematized  mental  and 
physical  manipulations  of  these  artists  in  a  way  that  never  failed  to 
have  them  ready  for  dispatch  before  our  western  terminus  loomed  up 
by  the  side  of  the  track  in  the  blackness  of  the  night.  They  did 
splendid  work  and  lots  of  it,  but  as  compared  with  the  work  of  to-day, 
regardless  of  the  improved  facilities  now  provided  and  the  years  of 
education  and  discipline  through  which  the  backbone  of  the  service 
has  passed  to  reach  its  present  efficiency  and  expertness,  it  is  believed 
that  the  clerks  on  the  best  lines  of  those  days  did  as  much  per  clerk 
as  those  on  the  best  lines  of  tliese  later  days,  but  it  was  not  so  diversi- 
fied, nor  so  generally  useful  to  the  country  as  a  whole  or  of  so  much 
importance  to  business  and  professional  interests. 

No  city  distribution  was  made  in  railway  post  offices  then  and 
registered  mail  was  handled  in  a  very  simple  manner.  These  two  in- 
novations have  been  of  great  benefit  to  the  public,  have  increased  the 
work  of  the  clerks  and  made  the  growth  of  the  force  more  rapid  than 
would  have  been  necessary  otherwise.  In  fact  the  service  has  been 
forced  with  the  speed  of  a  race  horse  ever  since  1869,  when  it  was  first 
given  an  organization ;  that  organization  had  to  be  educated  and  de- 
veloped, and  the  supervision  increased,  and  that  too  developed  before 
flesh  began  to  form  on  the  skeleton  and  muscles  and  strength  began 
to  show  in  the  long  strides  it  has  been  making  for  many  years. 

I  remained  in  this  R.  P.  O.  about  one  year  and  was  then  trans- 
ferred to  the  Omaha  &  Ogden  R.  P.  O.,  and  assigned  to  duty  as  chief 


50 

clerk,  R.  M.  S.,  headquarters  at  Omaha,  Neb.,  and  with  an  increase 
of  salary  from  $1000  to  $1400  per  annum.  The  Omaha  &  Ogden,  the 
Burlington  &  Council  Bluffs,  the  Council  Bluffs  &  Kansas  City,  the 
Kansas  City  &  Denver,  the  Cheyenne  &  Denver  and  the  Missouri 
Valley  &  Fremont  were  assigned  to  me,  and,  as  I  did  not  have  an 
assistant  and  was  introducing  a  new  system  and  correcting  the  evils 
of  the  old,  and  disciplining  and  educating  the  employees,  especially 
in  the  Omaha  &  Ogden  R.  P.  O.,  I  was  in  active  service  all  the  time. 

I  had  a  family  to  support,  and  was  not  allowed,  as  chief  clerks 
have  been  for  many  years,  necessary  traveling  expenses.  All  I  re- 
ceived was  a  salary  of  $1400  per  annum,  so  that  when  I  left  Omaha 
in  November,  1871,  I  owed  $500,  borrowed  money,  which  had  been 
expended  in  traveling  expenses  and  in  providing  my  family  and  myself 
with  the  absolute  necessities  of  Hfe. 

The  train  which  carried  me  to  the  Union  Pacific  Transfer,  Iowa, 
opposite  Omaha,  Neb.,  one  pleasant  day  in  April,  1870,  landed  me 
close  to  a  carnival  of  mud  and  profanity,  such  as  the  Missouri  river 
only  can  produce  when  "Old  Sol"  has  liquified  the  ice  and  snow  in 
the  mountains  around  Fort  Benton  and  to  the  south,  and  sent  it  rush- 
ing down  from  the  zone  around  that  old  military  post,  and  from  the 
country  contributary  to  its  tributaries,  boiling  and  crashing  through 
villages,  driving  steamboats  upon  the  land ;  destroying  railroad  tracks, 
drowning  horses,  cattle  and  other  farm  stock  within  its  track.  A 
mighty  torrent  headed  in  a  primeval  wilderness,  at  war  with  civiliza- 
tion, and  the  inventive  genius  of  man,  through  whom  the  elements  of 
nature  are  subdued,  and  made  subservient  to  progress  and  develop- 
ment, instead  of  continuing  on  its  course  of  destruction  and  desolation. 

I  found  the  mail  messenger  loading  the  mail  for  Omaha  and  the 
Omaha  &  Ogden  line  (U.  P.  R.  R.)  on  his  wagons  preparatory  to 
transferring  it  across  the  river,  and  the  transfer  clerk  watching  him 
with  that  smile  of  confidence  playing  over  his  classic  features  which 
afterwards  became  as  noted  the  world  over  for  "taking  them  in"  as 
the  one  we  know  as  the  "childlike  and  bland"  brand.  When  the 
wagons  were  loaded  and  the  transfer  clerk  ready  I  accepted  the  en- 
tourage as  a  convoy  and  arrived  in  Omaha  without  paying  tribute  to 
either  "The  First  Chance"  or  "The  Last  Chance,"  or  going  into  a 
strange  land  with  the  scent  of  whiskey  on  my  breath. 

After  breakfast  I  called  on  the  postmaster,  at  the  post  office,  and 
inquired  for  the  office  of  the  chief  clerk  of  the  R.  M.  S.,  and  was 
directed  to  the  second  floor  back.  The  back  room  on  the  second  floor 
was  quite  large  and  rather  dark,  and  without  furniture  to  speak  of. 


51 

At  the  time  of  my  first  call  my  predecessor  was  not  in,  so  I  introduced 
myself  to  the  agents  who  were  assembled  and  there  were  quite  a  num- 
ber; many  of  them  were  bright,  active,  earnest-looking  men,  as  well 
put  up  and  with  as  agreeable  features  and  pleasant  manners  as  clerks 
in  other  centers.  Others  there  were  who  had  passed  the  period  in 
their  careers  when  one  in  charge,  who  could  not  keep  his  eyes  on  them 
most  of  the  time,  could  not  hope  to  compete  successfully  with  the  d — 1 
for  their  salvation ;  so  as  time  moved  on  it  was  found  best  not  to  let 
them  embarrass  the  service  and  annoy  the  business  public  any  longer. 

I  introduced  myself,  as  I  have  written,  and  fastened  to  one  of  the 
walls  of  the  room  a  greeting  and  an  announcement  of  assumption  of 
command  which  began  with  the  salutation,  "Gentlemen. — " 

I  then  stepped  back,  sat  down  and  waited  for  the  next  move.  In 
a  moment  Captain  Smith — who  had  been  an  officer  in  the  regular 
army,  was  well  educated,  a  polished  gentleman  when  himself,  and  a 
good  clerk  under  the  same  conditions — took  a  position  in  front  of  the 
manifesto  and  began  to  read  it. 

When  he  reached  the  word  of  greeting — "Gentlemen" — he  re- 
peated it,  and  said,  "Well^  well,  we're  gentlemen,  are  we?  The  trans- 
formation is  sudden,  wonder  if  it  will  last?"  I  said,  "It  rests  with  you 
men ;  suppose  you  try,  captain."  In  the  conversations  that  followed 
I  tried  to  impress  upon  the  captain  and  all  the  others,  that  it  was  not 
hard  for  any  one  to  be  a  gentleman ;  that  it  ought  to  be  easy  for  one 
who  was  born  and  educated  among  those  who  had  been  counted  as 
such  from  infancy  to  the  grave,  and  who  had  served  in  a  profession 
none  but  gentlemen  could  enter  or  remain  in.  All  that  was  necessary 
was  to  be  courteous  and  kind,  sober  and  industrious ;  well-behaved, 
prompt  in  reporting  for  duty,  obedient,  law-abiding,  studious,  ener- 
getic and  active ;  that  no  one  who  could  not  fill  all  these  requirements 
after  a  fair  and  reasonable  trial  could  remain  in  the  railway  mail 
service,  because  he  would  be  worthless. 

I  said  I  would  help  them  all  I  could  ;  that  I  would  compile  and 
have  printed  for  their  use  books  of  schemes  of  all  the  states  and  terri- 
tories west  that  required  distribution  at  their  hands,  and  one  also  of 
such  eastern  states  as  must  be  distributed  before  reaching  Chicago 
to  insure  their  dispatch  from  Union  Pacific  Transfer  without  delay. 
The  Department  had  authorized  the  expenditure  of  a  sum  of  money 
for  printing  for  the  R.  M.  S.  at  Omaha.  I  found  that  $300  of  this 
was  unexpended  and  I  expended  it  for  the  schemes  mentioned. 

The  compiling  of  these  schemes  was  a  difficult  work,  so  far  as 
the  states  and  territories  were  concerned.     I  had  much  data  on  hand ; 


62 

the  scheme  I  made  and  used  while  assigned  to  the  Chicago  &  Iowa 
City  R.  P.  O.,  a  post  route  map,  and  star  route  lettings.  I  spread  the 
star  route  maps  on  the  floor  in  our  sitting  room  and  placed  a  book  of 
lettings  within  reach,  then  laid  down  on  the  map  and  examined  the 
data  I  had  received  in  answer  to  inquiries,  compared  it  with  the  let- 
tings and  the  map  and  then  made  my  notes  preparatory  to  the  final 
compilation,  but  in  many  instances  the  same  routes  were  scrutinized 
carefully  two  or  three  times,  and  the  same  postmasters  were  written 
to  again  for  further  information.  The  work  was  long  and  tedious, 
but  when  it  was  completed  and  the  schemes  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
agents  we  were  all — including  Superintendent  Bangs — very  greatly 
pleased. 

Before  leaving  Chicago  for  Omaha  Mr.  Bangs  and  I  had  a  com- 
prehensive conference  respecting  the  policy  I  should  pursue  in  the 
management  of  the  employees  who  were  to  be  under  my  supervision. 
He  said  his  information  was  that  discipline  was  very  lax  at 
Omaha ;  that  the  clerks  did  about  as  they  pleased — drank  firewater  of 
the  hottest  kind,  gambled,  shocked  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  com- 
munity by  crucifying  all  decency,  etc.,  but  he  thought  I  had  best  not 
put  any  restraint  upon  them  for  a  month  or  so,  but  keep  my  eyes  open, 
note  their  misconducts  and  after  that  time  handle  the  cases  as  in  my 
judgment  seemed  best,  making,  when  I  was  ready  to  act,  such  recom- 
mendations as  the  merits  of  the  cases  demanded.  If  the  case  was  so 
grave  as  to  indicate  immediate  action,  I  was  to  suspend  and  recom- 
mend removal,  etc. 

I  found  by  keeping  my  eyes  open  that  the  Union  Pacific  R.  R. 
was  in  more  ways  than  one  a  ward  of  the  nation,  that  every  law-maker 
of  the  republic  who  was  not  barred  from  participating  in  patronage 
assumed  that  he  had  a  right  to  be  represented  in  the  mail  service  on 
that  line,  because  it  ran  through  territories,  except  so  far  as  Nebraska 
was  concerned,  and  was  not  protected  by  the  wise  features  of  the 
present  splendid  civil  service  laws  and  regulations.  Under  these  con- 
ditions it  had  become  a  dumping  ground  for  those  in  remote  states, 
and  some  not  far  away,  whose  demands  for  appointments  had  become 
so  importunate,  and  who  from  a  political  standpoint  were  so  valuable 
as  working  constituents,  that  on  their  own  account  and  that  of  their 
friends  they  could  not  be  ignored.  Yet  they  could  not  be  provided 
for  in  their  own  congressional  district  or  state  without  offending  some- 
one, and  his  friends,  whose  combined  influence  was  more  necessary 
to  the  success  of  the  member,  therefore  the  individual  most  undesirable 
for  home  consumption  was  made  to  see  that  "Westward  Ho"  should 


53 

be  his  cry,  and  "Westward  Ho"  it  was ;  with  the  result  that  among  a 
large  number  of  good  employees  there  was  much  more  than  the  usual 
per  cent,  of  worthless  and  demoralized  ones,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
weed  these  out  in  order  to  build  up  an  efficient  and  respectable  service, 
and  this  was  done  without  much  delay. 

It  affords  me  pleasure  to  write  now  that  I  have  never  seen  clerks 
improve  more  rapidly  than  those  did  who  survived  the  winnowing. 
The  line  moved  upward  in  the  scale  of  efficiency  day  by  day  as  the 
clerks  took  root  in  the  knowledge  of  distribution,  and  the  strife  to 
excel  in  making  up  the  mail  in  a  neat  and  secure  manner,  to  keep 
their  cars  tidy,  and  to  maintain  a  clean  and  pleasing  personal  appear- 
ance grew  constantly  and  was  gratifying. 

Occasionally  a  sluggard — unmanned  by  whiskey — would  show  up 
on  his  run,  peevish  and  complaining  that  the  work  was  greater  than 
should  be  required  of  him;  but  as  a  rule  these  men  were  not  of  that 
character.  I  remember  one  case  that  illustrates  forcibly  how  little 
value  such  men  are  to  the  service.  A  large,  strong-built  man  from  one 
of  the  large  rock-ribbed  Eastern  states  was  appointed  to  this  line 
because  he  was  a  kinsman  of  a  gentleman  of  great  political  influence, 
and  when  the  line  was  made  a  full  railway  post  office  he  was  made  a 
clerk  in  charge  for  the  same  reason,  but  he  could  not  maintain  him- 
self and  was  reduced.  I  visited  the  railway  post  office  at  the  depot, 
one  evening  in  Omaha,  as  I  often  did  before  the  train  started  on  its 
run  of  more  than  a  thousand  miles,  to  see  if  the  crew 
was  on  hand  and  everything  in  condition.  I  found  the 
crew  there  and  a  very  large  mail ;  the  clerk  of  whom  I  have  been 
writing  was  in  charge  of  the  paper  mail,  and  as  soon  as  he  saw  me 
he  announced  that  the  mail  was  so  large  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  distribute  it  all  before  reaching  Ogden,  Utah.  I  looked  it  over  and 
said  he  could  finish  it  by  the  time  the  train  arrived  at  Cheyenne,  but 
he  protested  that  it  was  impossible,  and  finally  I  said  to  him  that  I 
would  go  out  with  him  and  would  guarantee  to  distribute  the  mail 
before  reaching  North  Platte,  Nebraska,  if  he  would  keep  the  case 
tied  out  and  bring  in  and  dump  the  mail  on  the  table.  He  agreed  to 
this,  and  I  sent  a  note  to  my  wife  telling  her  I  would  not  be  home 
until  the  next  evening,  and  why. 

We  started  out  and  I  buckled  down  to  the  work.  The  lights  were 
inferior,  but  my  eyes  were  splendid,  and  I  kept  at  the  paper  case  all 
night,  and  in  the  morning  as  the  sunbeams  were  playing  on  the  water 
under  the  bridge  over  which  we  passed  to  enter  North  Platte,  I  threw 
the  last  piece  of  paper  matter  in  the  case.     That  settled  the  question 


54 

as  to  how  much  mail  could  be  worked  on  the  run,  for  North  Platte  is 
only  about  one-(iuarter  of  the  distance  to  Ogden. 

I  had  kept  fully  posted  on  the  distribution  from  the  beginning  so 
that  I  could  enter  a  postal  car  anywhere  on  the  line  and  examine  mail 
made  up  by  the  clerks,  and  at  the  same  time  ascertain  if  the  clerk 
whose  mail  I  examined  kept  his  scheme  corrected  to  date.  It  was  my 
custom  to  enter  the  car  when  and  where  I  was  not  expected,  to  call 
upon  the  second  clerk  to  bring  in  and  dump  on  the  table  the  mail  he 
had  distributed  (his  scheme  and  my  own  were  placed  at  hand),  and 
as  I  took  up  this  mail  piece  by  piece  I  redistributed  it  into  the  boxes 
and  sacks  and  threw  out  before  the  clerk  the  errors  I  discovered,  and 
asked  him  where  they  belonged.  If  he  answered  incorrectly,  I  would 
ask  what  his  scheme  said,  and  look  at  his  book;  if  the  book  did  not 
agree  with  mine  it  was  corrected  at  once  and  the  clerk  admonished 
that  a  failure  to  obey  instructions  on  this  point  would  result  in  a 
record  that  would  oust  him  from  the  service. 

I  took  this  action  on  those  runs  whose  crews  I  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve were  filled,  in  part,  with  members  who  were  not  up-to-date  in 
their  work,  and  who  were  defective  in  memory  and  too  inert  mentally 
and  physically  to  make  an  effort  to  do  a  man's  part  to  earn  the  salary 
paid ;  men  whose  days  of  usefulness  had  passed  and  who  had  not  suffi- 
cient pride  of  birth  or  respect  for  their  families  to  do  their  own  part 
well  and  faithfully. 

In  order  to  keep  myself  thoroughly  posted  on  the  schemes  I  finally 
went  to  the  Union  Pacific  R.  R.  shops  and  showed  Mr.  Stevens — the 
master  car  builder — a  diagram  of  a  model  examination  case,  as  I 
named  it.  and  asked  him  if  he  would  build  it  without  cost;  he  said  he 
would,  and  did,  out  of  black  walnut.  I  then  bought  some  cards,  such 
as  we  use  to-day,  addressed  them,  and  after  taking  the  case  to  my 
house  began  using  it — once  daily,  except  Sundays,  when  at  home,  and 
finally  I  examined  some  of  the  clerks  on  it,  and  when  I  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  division  with  headquarters  at  Chicago,  took  it  with  me 
and  began  using  it  about  January,  1872. 

UNION  PACIFIC  R.  R. 

The  Union  Pacific  R.  R.  was  not  completed  to  Ogden,  Utah — a 
distance  of  1,029  miles — until  1869,  though  its  construction  was  com- 
menced in  1863.  The  building  of  the  first  forty  miles — Omaha  to 
Fremont,  Nebraska — was  slow  and  was  not  finished  until  1865,  but 
thereafter  it  was  built  with  remarkable  rapidity;  265  miles  in  1866, 
245  miles  in  1867,  350  miles  in  1868,  and  the  remaining  129  miles  in 


Thk  Examination  Case 


55 

1869,  when  connection  was  made  with  the  Central  Pacific  R.  R.,  and 
a  through  all  rail  route  established  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
oceans. 

During  most  of  this  time  the  worst  elements  of  our  population 
flowed  westward  in  the  wake  of  the  construction  trains  of  the  Union 
Pacific,  and  towns  sprung  up  in  a  night,  wherever  the  temporary 
western  terminus  happened  to  be  located,  made  up  almost  wholly  of 
saloons,  gambling  hells,  brothels  and  shacks  in  which  all  known  im- 
morality was  practiced  and  crimes — from  petty  larceny  to  murder — 
were  committed. 

Railway  mail  service  was  authorized  on  the  line  as  fast  as  changes 
in  location  of  the  western  terminal  occurred,  and  the  route  agents  who 
v/ere  appointed  to  handle  the  local  mails  and  those  made  up  in  the 
Boone  &  Council  Bluffs  and  the  Chicago  &  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.'s  were 
subject  to  great  temptations  because  they  were  in  these  cesspools  of 
wickedness,  were  associated  with  vice  when  not  on  duty  in  their  cars, 
and  too  often  this  familiarity  with  it  lessened  their  fear  of  its  influence 
upon  their  morals  and  in  many  instances  it  became  a  potent  factor  in 
their  downfall. 

I  think  I  may  say  that  my  disposition  is  sympathetic.  To  the 
best  of  my  recollection  I  never  disciplined  a  subordinate  for  miscon- 
duct or  disobedience  of  orders  or  violation  of  regulations,  either  in  the 
civil  or  military  service  of  our  government,  until  he  was  found  guilty 
of  the  act  for  which  he  was  disciplined  and  an  effort  made  to  reform 
him  by  moral  suasion.  I  believe  in  punishment  after  a  hearing,  if 
guilty,  not  before,  and  in  rectifying  injustices  as  soon  as  discovered. 
So  in  the  management  of  the  service  on  this  great  overland  route  I 
moved  with  extreme  caution,  seeking  to  know  the  men  and  to  gain 
their  confidence. 

Experience  inclined  me  to  the  opinion  that  the  young  men  who 
were  somewhat  wild — full  of  pranks,  restive  under  the  restraints  of 
good  government,  champed  on  the  bits  and  "kicked  against  the  pricks" 
— when  they  entered  the  service  were  so  because  of  a  superabundance 
of  vital  force,  energy  of  mind  and  body,  and  in  most  cases  if  they 
were  not  vicious  and  survived  the  weeding  out  process  incident  to 
passing  under  the  influence  of  a  systematic  and  equitable  discipline, 
became  excellent  clerks  and  agents;  just  as  observation  inclines  me 
to  believe  that  one  whose  "family  tree"  shines  with  some  illustrious 
names  but  has  an  occasional  d — 1  perched  on  its  branches  has  more  to 
be  proud  of  than  one  whose  tree  is  full  of  sluggards  and  imbeciles. 

The  success  of  the  service  is  due  to  red  blood  and  vital  energy 
and  lots  of  it. 


56 

In  tlie  days  of  which  I  write  men  who  would  not  now  be  ehgible 
for  appointment  on  account  of  age,  physical  infirmities,  mental  ship- 
wreck and  moral  insolvency  were  not  barred ;  there  were  no  civil  ser- 
vice laws  and  rules  guarding  the  portals  of  entrance  to  the  public 
service,  therefore  it  not  infrequently  happened  that  the  employee  who 
had  demonstrated  positive  fitness  for  the  position  he  held  passed  out 
through  the  portals  as  his  successor,  upon  whose  face  and  form  was 
stamped  the  inevitable  signs  of  physical  and  mental  decay  or  moral 
degeneracy,  passed  in.  It  was  too  early  in  the  life  of  the  service  then 
to  charge  this  destructive  procedure  to  the  dogma  "to  the  victors  be- 
Ic'Ug  the  spoils,"  for  the  first  railway  post  office  was  not  inaugurated 
until  three  years  and  more  of  President  Lincoln's  first  administration 
had  expired,  and  the  party  he  represented  so  gloriously  continued  to 
administer  the  government  for  more  than  twenty  years  afterwards ; 
again,  when  President  Lincoln  was  inaugurated  there  were  all  told 
but  427  employees  in  the  whole  railway  mail  service,  and  only  22,018 
miles  of  railroad  upon  which  mail  was  carried,  and  not  one  railway 
post  office  clerk  or  railway  post  office  car.  When  the  party  was  de- 
feated and  passed  out  of  power  the  first  time  there  were  4,387  em- 
ployees in  the  service,  all  known  as  railway  postal  clerks — all  other 
designations  having  been  abrogated  by  Act  of  Congress  effective  July 
31,  1882 — and  121,032  miles  of  railroad  upon  which  mail  was  carried. 

The  facts  are,  the  Jacksonian  cry  lost  its  party  significance  for 
twenty-four  years,  because  the  same  party  administered  the  govern- 
ment and  dispensed  the  Federal  patronage  all  that  time,  but  it  re- 
mained of  national  importance;,  for  the  "tenure  of  office"  became  to 
some  extent  a  personal  matter  between  the  employee  and  his  friends, 
and  the  member  of  Congress  and  his  friends,  if  both  were  of  the 
dominant  party ;  and  the  effect  upon  the  service  and  the  business  inter- 
ests of  the  country  was  of  the  same  character,  only  less  baneful  be- 
cause being  of  the  same  political  faith,  the  incentive  to  demand  re- 
movals was  not  acute  unless  the  employee  favored  the  nomination  of 
some  one  else  for  the  seat  and  that  some  one  else  failed  to  secure  it,  or 
criticised  the  member  in  abusive  and  disrespectful  language  or  brought 
false  charges  against  him,  etc.  The  fact  that  a  clerk  or  agent  was 
subject  to  removal  on  the  demand  of  his  congressman  and  that  the 
same  gentleman  could  name  his  successor  kept  all  of  us  in  a  state  of 
unrest  and  made  the  success  of  the  service  problematical  until  Presi- 
dent Grant  issued  his  executive  order  of  1872,  carrying  into  effect  the 
civil  service  rules  drafted  by  the  commission  appointed  by  him  in 
pursuance  of  the  Act  of  March  4,  1871. 


67 

The  order  and  rules  provided  for  a  "tenure  of  office"  based  on 
"good  behavior  and  efficiency,"  but  did  not  deprive  the  members  of 
Congress  of  the  privilege  they  had  enjoyed  from  the  beginning  of 
naming  those  to  be  appointed  to  vacancies  and  as  additional  clerks 
and  agents.  The  order  allayed  the  unrest  very  materially  and  was  of 
great  assistance  in  developing  the  service,  but  it  fell  far  short  of  the 
civil  service  methods  that  have  prevailed  since  1889,  of  which  mention 
will  be  made  later  on. 

It  may  not  be  known  that  the  noble  red  men  disapproved  of  the 
building  of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad  and,  assuming  that  the  great 
plains  and  the  foothills  and  mountain  ranges  back  of  them  were  their 
game  preserves  and  that  those  employed  in  constructing  the  road 
were  trespassers,  they  protested,  but  it  was  not  heeded,  and  they 
undertook  to  enforce  it  by  obstructing  the  track  and  lassooing  the 
engine.  The  result  of  the  lassooing  was  a  whole  string  of  Indians 
sailing  through  the  air,  their  heads  and  legs  cracking  like  whip  cords 
while  their  whoops  of  astonishment  showed  that  the  iron  horse  was  a 
revelation  to  them ;  the  obstructions,  however,  ditched  the  train,  some 
of  the  equipment  was  burned,  some  of  the  passengers  killed,  others 
injured,  and  the  conductor  was  scalped,  but  recovered  and  resumed 
his  duties,  remaining  on  the  line  for  many  years.  I  believe  his  name 
was  John  Calhoun. 

About  the  time  this  tragedy  occurred  an  ex-clergyman  was  ap- 
pointed from  Ohio — I  think — a  route  agent  on  the  Union  Pacific  rail- 
road, and  reported  for  duty  at  Omaha,  Neb.  The  officer  in  charge  at 
the  time  assigned  him  to  a  crew  that,  with  others,  had  been  trying  to 
secure  an  appointment  for  a  young  man  named  H ,  then  a  resi- 
dent of  Omaha,  but  who  had  been  a  clerk  in  the  Cairo,  111.,  post  office, 
and  was  bright  and  energetic.  They  concluded  that  the  time  was  op- 
portune  for  them  to  make  a  telling  stroke   for  H ,  so  when  the 

clergyman  reported  at  the  mail  apartment  he  was  informed  that  the 
Indians  had  been  so  troublesome  of  late  that  one  member  of  each  crew 
was  required  to  sit  at  the  open  doorway  all  night,  with  a  musket  in 
his  hand  or  lying  across  his  lap,  and  a  revolver  by  his  side,  watching 
and  listening  to  outside  movements  and  sounds  in  order  to  give  the 
alarm  in  case  of  an  attack,  and  to  protect  the  mail  and  the  members 
of  the  crew  who  might  be  sleeping  until  they  could  be  aroused  and 
made  ready  to  aid  him ;  that  they  had  been  doing  this  night  duty  and 
working  daytimes  so  long  that  they  were  tired  out  and  as  he  was  fresh 
he  must  do  the  guard  duty  that  night.  They  placed  a  chair  by  the 
open  doorway,  gave  him  a  musket  and  revolver  and,  cautioning  him 
to  be  very  vigilant,  after  the  train  pulled  out,  returned  to  their  cases 


58 

and  resumed  work.     In  a  short  time  B dropped  in  and,  speaking 

loud  enough  to  be  heard  by  the  clergyman,  said  to  the  agent  in  charge 
that  he  had  just  visited  the  railroad  office,  where  he  had  been  informed 
that  the  Indians  were  on  the  war  path  again — burning,  plundering  and 
killing — and  that  undoubtedly  they  would  attack  the  train  that  night 
somewhere  up  the  road  ;  that  they  had  asked  him  to  visit  the  outgoing 
train  and  to  put  the  agents  on  their  guard  and  see  that  they  were 
properly  armed.  Being  told  they  were  short  he  handed  his  own  re- 
volver to  the  agent,  telling  him  to  take  it  along.     A  little  later  C 

looked  into  the  car,  told  about  the  same  story  and  donated  his  gun. 

Then   came  D with  a  more  startling  story  of  outrage   and  the 

tender  of  his  gun  was  accepted. 

All  this  time  our  clergyman  was  drinking  in  these  blood-curdling 
and  nerve-racking  tales,  but  he  remained  at  his  post  through  all  the 
night  like  a  gentleman,  and  when  he  returned  to  Omaha,  he  resigned, 
and  the  service  knew  him  no  more  forever. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  the  whole  stretch  of  country  from 
Omaha  to  Ogden,  1,029  miles,  through  which  the  Union  Pacific  R.  R. 
runs,  was  practically  uninhabited  by  civilized  people,  except  those  en- 
gaged in  the  construction  of  the  road,  and  the  offscourings  of  all 
creation  who  had  fallen  from  that  high  estate  and  were  using  every 
means  known  to  the  vile  intriguer  to  debauch  and  ruin  those  who 
were  thrown  in  their  way ;  that  the  greatest  Civil  War  of  all  times  was 
swallowing  up  the  best  blood  of  our  country  and  that  the  whole  pop- 
ulation of  the  United  States  numbered  not  more  than  35,000,000;  that 
the  aggregate  population  of  Nebraska,  Wyoming,  Colorado,  Utah, 
Idaho,  Montana,  Neveda,  Calif ornia^,  Oregon,  and  Washington — 
the  mail  for  which  passed  over  this  great  overland  route — was 
but  978,000,  and  that  there  were  about  14,000  Indians  in  and  close 
to  these  plains  who  were  hostile  to  the  project  and  37,000  more 
roaming  over  the  upper  Missouri  country  ready  to  reinforce  them 
at  any  time,  we  wonder  that  it  was  built  with  so  few  mishaps, 
in  so  short  a  time,  and  so  substantially. 

Since  then  and  as  a  result  of  the  success  of  this  great  undertaking, 
and  of  others  that  followed  after  the  way  had  been  made  plain,  the 
development  of  this  vast  territory  has  been  phenomenal  in  all  respects 
except  crime,  immorality  and  hostility  of  Indian  tribes ;  in  these  re- 
spects there  has  been  a  decrease  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of 
population.  This  has  increased  from  978,000  to  more  than  5,000,000, 
and  all  the  tracts  of  land  then  known  as  territories  have  become  states, 
and  the  population  of  the  United  States  has  grown  from  35,000,000 


59 

to  more  than  88,000,000.  The  increase  in  the  weight  and  number  of 
pieces  of  mail  handled  and  transported  on  railway  routes  has  been 
greater  than  the  increase  in  population. 

Much  more  of  a  reminiscent  nature  might  be  written  respecting 
my  experiences  in  the  railway  mail  service  prior  to  November,  1871, 
but  I  deem  it  unnecessary,  except  to  state  that  my  experience  includes 
some  of  the  work  of  a  special  agent  and  as  acting  postmaster  at  Chey- 
enne, Wyoming,  during  the  time  the  postmaster  was  held  in  duress 
pending  the  settlement  of  a  defalcation  case  and  the  appointment  of 
one  of  his  bondsmen  as  postmaster. 

Before  the  city  of  Chicago,  which  was  almost  swept  out  of  ex- 
istence by  the  great  conflagration  of  October  7th  to  9th,  1871,  both 
inclusive,  had  become  a  smouldering  ruin,  I  was  called  there  by  Gen- 
eral Superintendent  Bangs,  who  had  come  on  from  Washington  to 
assist  in  restoring  order  to  the  postal  service  of  the  city,  and,  pending 
its  full  rehabilitation,  to  provide  some  way  by  which  the  post  office 
force  could  take  care  of  the  mails  for  city  delivery,  and  arrange  to 
distribute  the  greater  part  of  that  which  originated  inside  the  city 
for  outside  addresses  independent  of  the  post  office.  This  was  accom- 
plished by  establishing  a  temporary  office  in  a  car  barn  on  State 
street,  and  stationing  relief  railway  post  office  cars  at  different  points 
in  the  city,  calling  in  the  clerks  who  were  off  duty,  and  sending  to  the 
cars  for  them  to  distribute  the  mail  which  was  ordinarily  distributed 
in  the  post  office ;  provision  was  also  made  to  pass  the  outside  mail, 
moving  in  all  directions  around  the  city  from  one  railway  line  to 
another,  thus  avoiding  a  blockade  at  that  point  and  keeping  the  mail 
moving  toward  its  final  destination  with  the  least  delay  possible. 

I  spent  one  day  with  Mr.  Bangs  and  then  returned  to  Omaha. 
This  was  but  a  brief  time  before  I  was  promoted  to  the  superintend- 
ency  of  the  then  Fifth  Division,  with  headquarters  in  Chicago,  but  he 
did  not  indicate  in  any  way  that  a  change  was  contemplated,  and  I  had 
not  thought  of  it. 

I  resumed  duty  and  moved  along  as  usual  until  the  81st  of 
November,  1871,  upon  which  day  E.  L.  Alexander,  who  had  been  a 
clerk  in  charge  in  the  Chicago  &  Iowa  City  and  the  Boone  &  Council 
Bluffs  R.  P.  O.'s,  and  was  then  chief  head  clerk  at  San  Francisco, 
called  upon  me.  We  remained  in  each  other's  company  all  day  and 
toward  evening  went  to  my  home  where  I  usually  remained — when 
not  absent  from  the  city — until  morning,  but  we  concluded  to  go  down 
to  the  post  office  after  dinner  and,  being  there,  went  to  my  letter  box 
and  found  in  it  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Bangs  informing  me  that  I  had 


60 

been  appointed  superintendent  of  railway  mail  service  at  Chicago,  and 
that  he  wished  me  to  report  there  as  early  as  possible  and  to  take  the 
oath  of  office  and  assume  charge  of  the  division  immediately  on  my 
arrival. 

I  did  not  know  what  to  do ;  did  not  feel  confident  that  I  could 
discharge  the  duties  of  such  a  responsible  office  satisfactorily  at  that 
time  and  said  to  Chief  Clerk  Alexander  that  I  would  wire  Mr.  Bangs 
declining  the  appointment.  He  expressed  his  views  of  such  a  propo- 
sition very  freely  and  forcibly  and  I  concluded  to  telegraph  an  accept- 
ance, which  I  did,  and  commenced  to  prepare  for  the  trip  to  Chicago 
at  once.  In  the  morning  the  ice  was  running  in  the  river  so  thick  and 
strong  that  it  was  considered  unsafe  to  attempt  to  force  the  steamboat 
through  it.  This  condition  continued  until  the  2-ith,  when  the  pressure 
to  cross  was  so  great  that  the  company  concluded  to  risk  their  property 
if  we  would  risk  our  lives.  We  crossed  safely  and  I  arrived  in  Chi- 
cago that  night  long  after  dark,  but  I  obeyed  Mr.  Bangs'  instructions, 
hunted  up  a  notary  public,  took  the  oath  of  office  and  took  active 
charge  of  the  division  on  the  morning  of  the  25th  of  November,  1871. 

CHICAGO  POST  OFFICE  FIRE. 

As  I  have  said  in  another  part  of  these  reminiscences,  immediately 
after  the  great  fire  of  October,  1871,  the  Chicago  post  office  and  the 
office  of  the  superintendent  of  railway  mail  service  were  located  in  a 
car  barn  on  State  street.  They  occupied  the  second  story  of  the  build- 
ing, which  consisted  of  a  very  large  room  known  as  Burlington  Hall. 
The  furniture  and  fixtures  placed  in  this  hall  for  post  office  purposes 
were  very  ordinary — such  as  had  been  discarded  by  other  offices  in  the 
main,  or  put  together  rudely  for  temporary  use  only.  No  attempt  was 
made  to  give  the  interior  arrangement  of  this  improvised  office  an 
artistic  touch  because  business  urgency  and  the  economizing  of  time 
did  not  permit  it;  besides  it  was  a  "make-shift,"  only  intended  to  last 
until  a  more  suitable  building  could  be  fitted  up  for  more  permanent 
occupancy. 

Both  offices  were  without  homes.  Chicago  was  the  chief  sufiferer 
by  the  destruction  of  its  facilities  for  handling  the  mail  addressed  to 
its  citizens,  from  without  and  within,  and  that  addressed  by  the  same 
citizens  to  their  correspondents  without.  It  was  realized  that  what- 
ever building  was  selected  in  which  to  perform  the  postal  service  of 
that  city  more  permanently  would  be  occupied  almost  wholly  by  the 
local  post  office.  One  modest  sized  room,  or  at  most  two,  would 
accommodate  the  headquarters  of  the  railway  mail  service  at  that 
time  and  in  the  near  future.     But  in  those  days  all  the  work  of  the 


61 

Chicago  post  office,  and  all  the  employees  engaged  upon  it,  were  housed 
in  one  building  and  were  in  view  of  the  postmaster  at  all  times.  Branch 
offices  and  postal  stations  were  then  unknown. 

The  general  business  of  the  office  before  the  fire  was  only  sur- 
passed by  the  offices  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  while  in  the 
number  of  letters  received  and  mailed  New  York  alone  exceeded  it; 
and  yet  the  population  of  Chicago  was  then  but  334,270 ;  it  is  now 
between  two  and  three  millions.  It  will  therefore  be  seen  that  it  was 
of  paramount  importance  to  secure  a  home  for  it  at  once,  to  equip  it 
for  the  transaction  of  its  regular  business  in  the  shortest  time  possible, 
and  to  resume  work  in  the  meantime  in  Burlington  Hall  to  a  moderate 
extent  with  the  primitive  facilities  provided. 

In  the  interim  the  railway  mail  service  assumed  the  separation, 
distribution  and  dispatch  of  the  greater  part  of  the  mail  originating 
within  the  city.  This  it  could  do  because  it  was  not  centralized  in 
one  locality  or  building.  Its  organization  is  as  broad  as  the  country ; 
each  integral  part  of  it  being  as  complete  as  a  whole,  and  movable; 
each  postal  car,  with  its  crew  of  clerks,  is  an  integral  part  of  the  sys- 
tem and  each  integral  part  is  capable  of  duplicating  the  work  of  the 
others.  So  that  in  stationing  the  relief  cars  at  several  points  in  the 
city,  placing  the  clerks  "lying  off"  on  extra  duty,  and  sending  to  the 
cars  the  greater  portion  of  the  mail  usually  handled  in  the  post  office 
and  making  the  diversions  heretofore  mentioned,  the  troubles  and 
delays  anticipated  were  minimized. 

In  the  emergency  then  existing  it  was  not  absolutely  necessary 
that  the  headquarters  of  the  railway  mail  service  should  have  a  room 
in  any  building,  provided  records  of  the  superintendent's  official 
actions  were  allowed  to  lapse  temporarily.  The  superintendent  and 
chief  clerk  could  have  stood  in  the  open  air,  "scratch  block"  and 
pencil  in  hand,  and  sent  by  messenger  to  any  railway  post  office,  pub- 
lishing house,  railway  company,  the  post  office  or  the  mail  messenger, 
such  orders,  instructions  and  requests  as  the  changing  conditions  in- 
dicated ;  or  they  could  have  occupied  "standing  room"  in  one  of  the 
relief  cars  and  directed  the  movements  of  the  service  therefrom.  In 
fact,  the  superintendent  could  have  handled  the  service  in  and  around 
Chicago  much  as  a  general  handles  his  army  when  manoeuvring  for 
position  or  launching  its  battalions  against  the  enemy  in  a  great 
battle ;  namely,  stand  in  the  open  under  the  broad  expanse  of  Heaven 
and  direct  its  operations  through  aids  and  orderlies,  personal  observa- 
tions and  visitations,  and  the  word  of  mouth.  Therein  consists  one  of 
its  values  over  any  other  arm  of  the  postal  service;  it  has  many  more. 


62 

and  when  all  arc  considered  and  comparison  made  it  stands  out  pre- 
eminent ;  it  is  always  ready  for  any  emergency,  and  thus  far  has  coped 
successfully  with  all  that  have  arisen.  The  self-sacrificing  men  who 
have  assisted  in  building  up  the  service  from  the  beginning  have 
always  placed  in  the  balance  against  failure  to  protect  and  enhance 
the  interests  of  the  public — whom  they  serve — their  own  interests, 
rest  and  comfort,  enjoyment  of  wife,  family,  kindred  and  friends, 
those  sports  and  recreations  so  dear  to  men  of  their  caliber  in  other 
pursuits  of  life,  and  crowned  all  this  possible  discomfort,  deprivation 
and  sorrow  with  the  jeopardy  of  their  lives  and  limbs. 

When  I  entered  Burlington  Hall  on  the  morning  of  November  35, 
1871,  to  assume  the  duties  of  my  new  ofifice,  Mr.  William  P.  Campbell, 
who  had  served  as  chief  clerk  under  Colonel  Armstrong,  Mr.  Bangs 
and  Mr.  Wood,  and  who  was  a  very  bright  and  competent  officer 
whom  I  was  fortunate  in  retaining  and  attaching  to  myself  during  the 
greater  part  of  my  official  career  as  a  commissioned  officer,  met  me 
with  a  hearty  shake  of  the  hand,  sparkling  eyes  and  a  winning  smile. 
After  extending  his  congratulations  and  assuring  me  of  his  earnest 
assistance  he  handed  me  some  letters  which  Mr.  Bangs  had  telegraphed 
I  would  find  on  my  arrival  at  Chicago,  and  which  would  explain  the 
urgency  of  the  situation.  These  letters  I  need  not  say  I  studied  care- 
fully and  then  had  a  long  conference  with  Mr.  Campbell,  during  which 
he  gave  me  some  valuable  information,  and  I  may  as  well  say  now  as 
later  that  he  never  failed  to  give  me  loyal  and  helpful  support  during 
the  time  we  were  associated  together.  Mr.  Campbell  introduced  the 
facing  slip  in  the  LaFayette  and  Quincy  R.  P.  O.  in  1869 — this  was 
to  ascertain  if  the  clerks  in  that  office  missent  matter,  as  claimed  by 
the  Chicago  and  Centralia  R.  P.  O.  It  uncovered  many  errors,  and 
who  made  them.  Better  work  resulted  until  a  lapse  came,  when 
those  ofif ending  were  called  to  judgment  and  saw  "the  handwriting  on 
the  wall."  The  work  improved  continuously  thereafter,  and  it  was 
ordered  into  general  use. 

During  the  time  we  were  in  Burlington  Hall  the  post  office  was 
embarrassed  in  every  respect,  and  the  work  of  my  office  and  of  the 
employees  of  the  service  centering  at  Chicago  was  very  exhausting, 
but  all  were  comforted  with  the  knowledge  that  another  building  was 
being  remodeled  and  enlarged  and  the  interior  made  suitable  for  the 
work  which  was  to  be  performed  in  it.  This  building  was  the  Metho- 
dist church,  corner  of  Wabash  avenue  and  Harrison  street.     Its  trans- 


Hon.  William  P.  Campbell 

Ex-Assistaiit  General  Superiiiteiident  R.  M.  S. 


63 

formation  was  pushed  with  great  energy  and  the  post  office  and  railway- 
mail  service  moved  into  it  about  December  20,  1871,  and  remained 
there  until  July  14,  187-1.  Our  office  was  assigned  to  the  annex  to  the 
main  building,  and  consisted  of  two  rooms  and  a  dormitory,  one  on 
the  south  side  of  the  hall  that  divided  it,  and  the  others  on  the  north 
side.  The  one  on  the  south  was  light,  those  on  the  north  dark.  At 
first  Mr.  Campbell  and  I  constituted  the  whole  force  of  the  office,  and 
we  took  the  south  room.  The  north  room  was  fitted  up  with  a  letter 
case  and  very  soon  it  was  assigned  to  the  handling  of  error  slips,  etc. 
In  a  very  short  time  this  room,  as  I  remember  it,  was  placed  in  charge 
of  Mr.  John  A.  Montgomery,  who  remained  with  us  until  1889,  when 
he  was  made  superintendent  of  mails  in  the  Chicago  post  office.  He 
had  excellent  qualities,  was  resourceful,  energetic  and  somewhat  diplo- 
matic in  temperament ;  he  served  many  years  with  ability  in  the  postal 
service,  filling  every  position  he  held  with  credit,  and  was  always 
loyal  to  his  superiors ;  but  his  services  as  a  brave  and  faithful  soldier 
during  the  dreadful  years  of  the  Civil  War,  and  his  labors  in  the 
postal  service  thereafter,  weakened  his  vitality  and  when  he  should 
have  been  in  the  prime  of  life  his  soul  had  returned  to  its  Make*- 
"Peace  to  his  ashes." 

As  soon  as  we  w^ere  settled  in  our  new  quarters  the  work  of  re 
habilitating  and  improving  the  service  began.  It  was  realized  that 
before  it  could  reach  a  point  in  its  progress  where  eternal  warfare 
upon  it  would  cease,  a  vast  expenditure  of  energy,  stamina,  invent- 
iveness, discrimination  and  judgment  would  have  to  be  made  in  dem- 
onstrating that  it  could  do  all  that  was  claimed  for  it ;  that  it  was  a 
meritorious  system  and  not  unreliable  and  extravagant,  and  so  the 
work  commenced  on  that  line  and  the  service  was  ready  to  prove  when 
the  final  struggle  came  that  those  who  had  been  assailing  it  did  not 
comprehend  its  organization  and  capacity.  The  then  postmaster  at 
Boston — sometimes  called  ironically  the  "Postmaster-General  of  New 
England" — had  a  wire  strung  from  his  room  into  the  office  of  the 
superintendent  of  the  First  Division,  railway  mail  service,  located, 
then  as  now,  in  Boston,  and  had  a  bell  attached  to  the  end  in  the  su- 
perintendent's office.  One  day  he  rang  it,  and  Superintendent  Cheney, 
"our  Tom,"  grasped  the  whole  situation,  immediately  realized  that 
upon  his  action  then  depended  whether  as  a  useful  officer  of  a  co- 
operative, but  independent  service,  he  was  to  "Sink  or  swim,  live  or 
die,  survive  or  perish,"  and  he  looked  up  at  the  bell  with  a  smile  and 


64 

kept  on  holding  down  his  chair.  The  bell  rang  again  and  again  and 
then  a  messenger  from  the  postmaster  appeared  in  the  superintendent's 
office  and  asked  him  if  he  had  not  heard  the  bell  ring.  Mr.  Cheney  said, 
"Yes,  what  of  it?"  The  messenger  answered,  "The  postmaster  rang 
it  because  he  wants  you  to  come  to  his  room ;  he  wishes  to  see  you  on 
business."  "Tom"  told  him  to  go  back  and  tell  the  postmaster  that 
he  was  in  his  room  and  that,  "the  bell  is  on  the  wrong  end  of  the  wire." 

Scheme  building,  which  had  made  very  little  progress,  because  it 
had  been  largely  an  individual  matter  with  the  employees,  was  cen- 
tralized in  the  office;  some  of  them  were  built  by  myself  as  late  as 
1870,  and  all  of  them  were  printed.  I  remember  that  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Mr.  S.  L.  Foster,  who  was  my  secretary  then,  I  built  a  scheme 
of  Iowa — county  and  exception — in  1875,  or  1876,  and  had  it  printed; 
I  had  built  one,  in  my  scheme  book,  of  the  state  by  county  and  excep- 
tions, and  from  it  one  by  office  in  1868.  The  boys,  as  they  dropped 
into  the  office,  were  informed  that  they  would  be  called  upon  in  a 
short  time  to  be  examined  upon  it.  It  was  a  sheet  scheme  and  as  com- 
pared with  others  issued  at  a  much  later  date  was  small,  but  all  seemed 
to  think  that  in  requiring  them  to  memorize  it  I  was  subjecting  them 
to  unnecessary  hardships,  and  some  said  no  clerk  could  pass  a  credit- 
able examination  upon  it.  One  day  several  of  those  who  felt  that  way 
were  in  my  office,  and  I  said  to  them,  "Boys,  I  must  leave  for  the  upper 
peninsula  of  Michigan  to-night  and  will  be  absent  for  a  week.  I  will 
put  one  of  these  schemes  and  a  schedule  in  my  pocket,  and  you  may 
name  a  committee  to  examine  me  on  it  when  I  return.  If  I  cannot 
distribute  95  per  cent,  of  the  cards  correct  I  will  not  ask  you  to  try  it." 

I  returned  in  the  time  stated ;  the  committee,  case  and  cards  were 
ready  in  due  time,  and  I  distributed  the  cards,  making  96  per  cent, 
correct.  That  settled  it ;  nothing  more  was  said,  but  the  clerks  who 
worked  Iowa  by  that  scheme  passed  creditable  examinations  on  it. 
Afterwards  I  learned  Illinois  while  on  a  pleasure  trip  around  the 
lakes  from  Chicago  to  Ogdensburg,  New  York,  with  Mr.  Bangs,  ex- 
Governor  Stewart  and  Mr.  Vail — the  latter  leaving  us  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio — but  I  did  not  deem  it  necessary  to  pass  an  examination  upon 
it.  I  learned  it  for  the  use  it  would  be  to  me  in  correspondence  and  on 
tours  of  inspection. 

In  January,  1872,  we  began  case  examinations  at  Chicago.  At 
first  they  were  made  in  a  case  which  the  master  car  builder  of  the 
Union  Pacific  R.  R.  built  for  me  at  a  time  in  1870  when  he  was  com- 
pleting the  construction  of  a  line  of  full  cars  authorized  by  the  Depart- 
ment.    I  made  many  examinations  on  this  and  other  cases.     The  sys- 


65 

tern  of  case  examination  has  spoken  very  effectually  for  its  efficiency 
as  a  developing  medium  since  that  year.  It  is  the  most  important 
educational  method  in  use  in  the  service.  In  1873  I  detailed  Mr.  C.  G. 
Weirrich  from  the  Chicago  &  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.  to  my  office  as  chief 
examiner ;  he  had  a  wonderful  memory,  and  kept  the  cases  busy  all 
the  time;  so  did  the  chief  clerks,  as  far  as  possible. 


Illustration  of  the  Original  Schedule  of  Mail  and 
Express  Trains  at  Junctions. 


JUNCTIONS 

Maii, 

Express 

Burlington,  Iowa. 

Chicago  &  Burlington,  R.  P.  0.    . 

/  Leave 
'    ■    t  Arrive 

7.00  A.M. 

7.20  p.m. 

9.00  p.m. 
6.2,5  A.M. 

Burlington  &  Council  Bluffs,  Agent 

f  Leave 
•    t  Arrive 

6.45  A.M. 
8.40  p.m. 

7.40  p.m. 
6.45  A.M. 

Burlington  &  Keokuk,  Agent.  .    . 

f  Leave 
•    (  Arrive 

7.20  a.m. 
6.35  a.m. 

7.30  P.M. 
7.10  p.m. 

Burlington  &  Quincy,  Agent  .    .    . 

f  Leave 
•    \  Arrive 

7.05  a.m. 
7.05  P.M. 

Burlington  &  Laclede 

f  Leave 
•    \  Arrive 

6.00  P.M. 
9.50  a.m. 

Albert  Lea  &  Burlington,  Agent  .    . 

/  Leave 
•    \  Arrive 

6.45  a.m. 
11.10  p.m. 

7.30  P.M. 
9.45  A.M. 

Burlington  Br.  T.  P.  &  W.  R.  R.  . 

f  Leave 
■    t  Arrive 

4.25  A.M. 
7.25  P.M. 

2.30  P.M. 
1.50  P.M. 

West  Liberty,  Iowa. 

Chicago  &  Iowa  City,  R.  P.  0  .    .    . 

fE.  .   . 
•   iw. .  . 

5.50  A.M. 
8.20  pm. 

6.47  P.M. 
8.50  A.M. 

Davenport  &  Council  Bluffs,  Agent  . 

(E.  .   . 
•    I  W.  .  . 

6.47  p.m. 
8.50  a.m. 

Albert  Lea  &  Burlington,  Agent   .    . 

fN.  .    . 

•  Is. .  . 

9.28  A.M. 
8.20  P.M. 

10.30  p.m. 
6.32  A.M. 

Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa, 

Cedar  Rapids  &  Council  Bluffs,  Aget 

.      f Leave 
^^-    \  Arrive 

7.05  A.M. 
8.30  P.M. 

8.30  p.m. 
5.45  a.m. 

Cedar  Rapids  &  Holland,  Agent    ,    . 

f  Leave 
•    \  Arrive 

7.15  A.M. 

7.05  P.M. 

Chicago  &  Cedar  Rapids,  R.  P.  0.    . 

/  Leave 
•    \  Arrive 

5.55  A.M. 
8.00  P.M. 

8.35  P.M. 
6.45  a.m. 

Farley  &  Cedar  Rapids,  Agent.    .    . 

1  Leave 
•     \  Arrive 

4.45  P.M. 

11.50  A.M. 

7.00  a.m. 
6.30  P.M. 

Albert  Lea  &  Burlington,  Agent  .    . 

•  is": : 

11.35  A.M. 

6.30  p.m. 

12.35  A.M. 
4.35  A.M. 

Postville  &  Cedar  Rapids,  Agent .  .  . 

(  Leave 
■    \  Arrive 

1.15  P.M. 
11.00  A.M. 

4.40  A.M. 
7.40  P.M. 

66 

About  a  year  after  we  commenced  case  examinations  we  began 
to  keep  a  record  of  all  errors  noted  on  facing  slips  returned.  A  book 
account  was  opened  with  each  clerk  who  used  slips  and  the  errors 
entered  in  the  book  were  charged  to  the  clerk  who  made  up  the  pack- 
age in  which  they  were  found.  The  name  of  the  office,  county,  state 
and  where  sent,  and  proper  destination  each  occupied  a  column,  but 
before  these  entries  were  made  the  alleged  errors  were  carefully  ex- 
amined by  an  expert.  If  they  were  errors  they  were  charged  as  stated; 
if  they  were  not  they  were  charged  to  the  clerk  who  noted  them  on  the 
slip ;  and  a  doubtful  check  was  referred  to  the  clerk  against  whom  it 
was  charged,  and  if  he  could  show  that  it  was  an  unjust  charge  he  was 
given  credit  for  it ;  if  not  it  was  held  against  him. 

In  March,  1872,  I  arranged  and  compiled,  and  had  printed  in  the 
Chicago  Postal  Record,  the  first  "Schedule  of  Mail  and  Express 
Trains  at  Junctions"  ever  issued.  It  was  for  the  state  of  Wisconsin 
and  was  in  sheet  form.  This  was  followed  month  by  month  with 
schedules  of  other  states  until  all  in  the  division  were  provided  for ; 
and  thereafter  a  schedule  in  sheet  form  of  all  the  states  and  territories 
in  the  division  was  issued  monthly.  The  first  schedules  had  foot  notes 
explaining  how  they  were  to  be  applied  and  examples  illustrating  the 
application. 

This  schedule  was  immediately  approved  by  General  Superintend- 
ent Bangs,  who  predicted  that  it  would  become  of  inestimable  value, 
and  he  directed  its  use  throughout  the  service.  It  would  be  impossible 
now  to  handle,  distribute  and  dispatch  the  mails  correctly  without  a 
schedule  of  connections.  This  schedule  was  improved  upon  after- 
wards by  Mr.  French  and  has  been  greatly  improved  in  many  respects 
since. 

The  mission  of  the  schedule  was  to  enable  the  clerks  in  railway 
post  offices  and  large  post  offices  to  determine  by  which  route,  offices, 
and  lines  that  could  be  supplied  by  two  or  more  routes  should  be 
dispatched  in  order  to  arrive  at  destination  at  the  earliest  hour  possible. 

It  was  found  that  offices  located  on  three-times-a-week  star  routes 
running  from  an  office  on  one  railway  route  to  an  office  on  another 
railway  route,  up  one  day  and  down  the  next,  could  be  supplied  six 
times  a  week  if  the  mail  addressed  to  them  was  dispatched  by  one  route 
to-day  and  the  other  to-morrow ;  so,  too,  some  railway  routes  were 
crossed  and  connected  with  at  different  junctions  and  termini — by 
several  railway  post  offices  heading  from  a  common  junction  of  great 
commercial  importance.  A  portion  of  the  route  so  connected  could  be 
supplied  quicker  and  at  less  expense  by  one  railway  post  office  than  by 


67 

the  others.  By  the  schedule  the  clerks  centering  at  the  common  junc- 
tion were  shown  how  to  distribute  or  dispatch  the  mail  for  this  line 
so  as  to  give  all  the  offices  supplied  by  it  and  all  its  connections  quicker 
supply  than  would  have  been  possible  if  all  these  railway  post  offices 
had  distributed  the  mail  for  one  connection,  ignoring  "subdivisions 
as  between  junctions." 

Again  sometimes  a  line  located  a  great  distance  from  an  import- 
ant supply,  it  was  found,  could  be  reached  best  by  sending  the  mail 
for  it  over  two  or  more  chains  of  routes,  none  of.  which  were  full  rail- 
way post  offices.  Sometimes  one  of  these  chains  reached  the  route  at 
a  point  which  enabled  it  to  supply  all  the  offices  on  it  quicker  than  the 
others  could  any  of  them. 

Such  routes  as  those  mentioned  I  studied  and  tested  thoroughly 
while  working  out  the  schedule,  and  it  was  to  place  in  the  hands  of 
the  clerks  information  that  would  enable  them  to  work  the  schemes 
to  the  best  advantage  that  I  built  the  original  "Schedule  of  Mail  and 
Express  Trains  at  Junctions,"  and  also  to  point  out  to  them,  to  the 
transfer  clerks  and  the  mailing  divisions  of  large  distributing  post 
offices,  how  made  up  and  pouched  mail  should  be  dispatched  to  reach 
destination  without  loss  of  time. 

When  I  became  superintendent  of  the  Fifth  Division — now  the 
Sixth — it  comprised  the  states  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Arkansas, 
Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Nebraska,  the  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan 
and  the  line  of  the  Union  Pacific  railway. 

The  Fourth  Division,  headquarters  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  com- 
prised Indiana,  Michigan — excluding  the  upper  peninsula — Ohio,  Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee  and  West  Virginia. 

Soon  after  this  time  the  San  Francisco  division  was  designated 
the  Fifth  instead  of  the  Sixth;  the  Fifth,  or  Chicago  division,  was 
designated  the  Fourth,  and  the  old  Fourth  was  divided  between  the 
Second,  Third  and  new  Fourth  divisions.  West  Virginia  went  to  the 
Second;  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  to  the  Third;  Indiana,  Ohio,  Michi- 
gan, and  the  mails  passing  through  Canada,  over  what  was  then  the 
Great  Western  and  Grand  Trunk  railways,  to  the  new  Fourth.  There 
was  also  added  to  it  Kansas,  Colorado,  Indian  Territory,  New  Mexi- 
co, Dakota  and  Wyoming,  so  that  early  in  1872  the  Fourth  Division 
comprised  Arkansas,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Michigan,  Min- 
nesota, Missouri,  Nebraska,  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  and  the  territories  of 
New  Mexico  and  Indian,  Colorado,  Dakota,  the  through  line  of  the 
Union  Pacific  railway,  and  the  mails  passing  through  Canada. 

It  was  an  enormous  territory  to  cover,  and  it  kept  me  traveling 
most  of  the  time,  and  yet  there  were  but  about  1,500  employees  in  the 


68 

railway  mail  service  then.  How  many  of  these  were  assigned  to  the 
new  Fourth  Division  I  have  not  the  data  at  hand  to  tell,  but  as  there 
has  been  taken  out  of  it  since  the  whole  of  the  Seventh  Division,  all 
of  the  Ninth,  except  the  New  York  &  Chicago  R.  P.  O.  between  New- 
York  and  Buffalo,  all  of  the  Tenth  except  Montana,  Arkansas  and 
Oklahoma  of  the  Eleventh,  and  Ohio  and  Indiana  of  the  Fifth,  it 
could  not  have  been  much  less  than  half. 

I  remember  receiving  instructions  from  Mr.  Bangs  early  in  1872 
to  assume  charge  of  Indiana,  Michigan,  Ohio,  and  the  Baltimore  & 
Ohio  R.  R.  to  Grafton,  West  Virginia,  with  authority  to  detail  a  clerk 
as  chief  clerk  at  Indianapolis.  I  detailed  James  Kerr,  who  was  after- 
wards chief  clerk  at  Fort  Scott,  Kansas,  and  later  a  distributing  clerk 
in  the  Chicago  post  office.  He  was  a  red-headed,  sandy-complexioned, 
sturdy-built  man,  true  as  steel,  determined,  capable,  outspoken,  fear- 
less, on  deck  all  the  time — an  old  Roman  centurion.  As  soon  as  he 
entered  upon  his  assignment  he  notified  me  of  the  fact  and  said  he  had 
been  given  a  room  in  the  Indianapolis  post  office  building;  that  it  was 
furnished  with  an  old  table  for  a  desk,  a  candle  box  for  a  chair,  and  a 
candle  for  a  light ;  that  the  officer  who  had  been  relieved  was  too  busy 

following  Senator  around  to  turn  anything  over  to  him,  but 

that  he  would  do  the  best  he  could ;  would  look  after  the  lines  and 
clerks  placed  under  his  immediate  supervision  and  start  a  fire  under 
the  "sweat  box."  Mr.  Kerr  was  comforted ;  in  a  short  time  his  office 
was  equipped  as  well  as  that  of  any  chief  clerk  in  the  west  at  that 
time,  and  that  is  not  saying  much  for  it. 

Captain  Maurice  J.  McGrath  ran  into  Chicago  when  I  did.  He 
entered  the  service  fourteen  months  after  I  did.  May,  1867.  He  had 
been  a  soldier  in  the  Civil  War,  and  came  out  of  it  with  a  record  for 
courage  and  endurance  unsurpassed.  Like  many  others  who  sought 
appointments  in  the  railway  mail  service  at  that  time,  he  did  so  because 
he  was  out  of  touch  with  trades  and  business  pursuits — physically  and 
temperamentally. 

The  occupations  that  were  congenial  to  him  and  to  many  other 
young  men  in  the  comparatively  placid  and  uneventful  years  preced- 
ing the  war,  became  irksome  after  passing  through  scenes  of  carnage 
and  strife  which  infused  in  their  earthly  tenements  a  more  fiery,  de- 
termined and  ambitious  spirit  on  the  battlefields  where  contending 
hosts  struggled  for  supremacy.  The  Captain  was  a  positive  character ; 
a  determined  student  of  the  practicability  and  possibilities  of  whatever 
he  engaged  in ;  there  was  nothing  superficial  or  unstable  in  his  make- 
up.    His  best  understanding  and  energy  was  devoted  to  the  postal 


69 

service  after  he  became  associated  with  it,  and  as  a  natural  result  he 
rose,  as  the  railway  mail  service  grew,  from  one  position  to  another 
until  he  became^  in  the  order  named,  assistant  superintendent,  railway 
mail  service,  superintendent  of  mails,  and  superintendent  of  free  de- 
livery service,  then  superintendent  of  mail  again  in  the  Chicago  post 
office,  which  latter  office  he  held  when  summoned  to  the  Great  Beyond. 
"May  he  rest  in  peace." 

As  superintendent  of  mails,  Captain  McGrath  carried  into  that 
office  the  methods  he  had  been  taught  as  a  clerk  and  assistant  super- 
intendent of  our  service,  thus  insuring  harmony  in  the  handling  of  the 
mail  in  that  great  centre  and  more  rapid  progress  in  the  development 
of  the  railway  mail  service,  and  he  unquestionably  was  entitled  to  the 
credit  of  compiling  and  arranging  the  first  county  and  exception  scheme 
of  a  state  ever  printed ;  and  the  state  was  Illinois. 

Colonel  James  E.  Stuart  entered  the  service  in  the  fall  of  18G6  as 
a  route  agent  on  the  Wisconsin  division  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwest- 
ern railway  between  Chicago,  111.,  and  Green  Bay,  Wis.  He  was 
young,  active  and  full  of  vitality.  He  had  been  a  soldier  from  Wis- 
consin during  the  Civil  War  in  a  regiment  assigned  to  the  "Iron  Bri- 
gade," which  participated  in  some  of  the  most  desperate  battles  of 
the  war,  and  I  have  been  told  that  Stuart  was  always  in  the  "mix-up" 
when  Greek  met  Greek. 

He  has  lived  quite  largely  in  a  military  atmosphere  almost  all 
his  life,  and  could  not  resist  the  impulse  to  participate  in  the  Spanish- 
American  War,  which  drove  the  Spanish  Government  out  of  Cuba 
and  away  from  this  continent. 

After  serving  on  the  Chicago  &  Green  Bay  route  a  year  or  more 
he  was  transferred  in  September,  1867^  to  the  Boone  &  Council  Bluflfs 
R.  P.  O. — a  line  which  had  just  been  established  to  handle  the  mails 
passing  to  and  from  the  vast  territory  lying  between  the  Missouri 
River  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Colonel  Stuart  and  the  other  employees 
who  were  assigned  to  this  railway  post  office  were  selected  by  Colonel 
Armstrong  on  account  of  their  fitness,  or  prospective  fitness,  for  the 
work  that  was  to  be  performed  therein.  They  made  good  the  confi- 
dence reposed  in  them  and  when  this  mail  was  transferred  to  the  Chi- 
cago, Rock  Island  &  Pacific  R.  R.,  the  Chicago,  111.,  &  Iowa  City  R.  P. 
O.,  Colonel  Stuart,  with  others  of  the  Boone  &  Council  Bluffs 
railway  post  office,  was  transferred  with  it.  As  I  remember  the 
organization  of  this  line  the  crews  were  as  follows :  E.  L.  Alexander, 
head   clerk ;    C.    G.    Weirrich,    clerk ;    James    E.    Stuart,    head    clerk ; 

"Shorty"   Gates,  clerk;   Mr.   Brooks,   head   clerk;  ,   clerk; 

James  E.  White,  head  clerk ;  Walter  L.  Hunt,  clerk. 


70 

Colonel  Stuart  remained  on  this  line  until  it  was  discontinued, 
which  was  after  full  railway  post  office  service  was  organized  on  the 
Union  Pacific  railway  between  Omaha,  Nebraska,  and  Ogden,  Utah, 
in  September,  1870.  I  do  not  remember  the  date  of  its  discontinuance, 
but  know  that  after  I  was  stationed  at  Chicago  as  superintendent, 
Stuart  was  one  of  my  chief  head  clerks,  with  headquarters  at  Iowa 
City,  Iowa.  After  serving  some  time  as  a  chief  head  clerk  he  was 
promoted  to  be  a  special  agent  of  the  Department,  and  later  to  be 
post  office  inspector  in  charge  at  Chicago,  and  is  still  in  that  position. 
For  the  splendid  services  he  rendered  our  government  as  a  soldier  in 
two  wars,  and  the  equally  valuable  services  performed  for  it  in  the 
postal  service,  he  deserves  all  the  consideration  it  can  give  him.  May 
his  days  be  long,  and  life  pleasant  to  him. 

Mr.  Edward  W.  Alexander  was  one  of  the  early  appointees  of 
this  service.  He,  too,  was  a  splendid  soldier  in  the  Civil  War,  and 
was  a  very  capable  railway  postal  clerk. 

I  detailed  Alexander  to  my  office  in  1872,  and  afterwards  made 
him  chief  clerk  at  Lafayette,  Ind.  He  was  transferred  thence  in  the 
same  capacity  to  Indianapolis,  after  Indiana  was  taken  from  my 
division,  and  then  became  assistant  superintendent,  R.  M.  S.,  under 
the  immediate  supervision  of  General  Superintendent  Vail  and  after- 
wards was  appointed  superintendent  of  mails  in  the  Philadelphia  post 
office,  where  he  has  served,  as  in  all  other  offices  he  has  occupied,  in- 
telligently, efficiently,  modestly  and  cleanly  in  every  respect. 

There  were  other  excellent  clerks  whom  I  brought  into  my  office, 
or  assigned  as  chief  clerks  as  the  work  of  the  service  and  the  develop- 
ment of  its  organization  increased ;  of  these  I  will  speak  later  on. 

I  had,  as  will  be  seen,  associated  with  me  in  my  office,  and  as 
chief  clerks,  within  two  years  after  we  moved  into  the  Wabash  Avenue 
Methodist  church,  some  of  the  brightest  lights  in  the  service,  and 
among  them  J.  B.  Harlow  and  J.  Stearns  Smith,  and  had  a  valuable 
ally  in  Captain  McGrath.  All  of  these  men  save  one  had  served  in 
the  army  during  the  Civil  War ;  they  knew  from  experience  how  im- 
portant to  the  successful  accomplishment  of  any  undertaking  in  which 
a  body  of  men  is  engaged  is  discipline,  and  most  of  them  were  disci- 
plinarians of  good  quality ;  they  were  accustomed  to  obey  and  they 
exacted  obedience  from  their  subordinates ;  they  had  endured  hard- 
ships in  all  forms  for  years  without  flinching.  With  empty  haver- 
sacks they  had  marched  with  heads  erect,  sparkling  eyes,  and  unfalter- 
ing footsteps  in  the  pathway  of  "Old  Glory."  They  had  faced  death  and 
disability  on  every  battlefield  of  the  republic ;  they  were  willing  to  face 
hardships  and  hazards  in  building  up  this  service,  and  they  did.     I 


71 

ask,  where  in  the  world  could  have  been  found  men  as  capable  of 
raising  from  its  low  estate  to  its  present  exalted  condition  a  service 
so  full  of  benefits  and  blessings  to  mankind  and  so  laden  with  hazard 
and  death  to  them  ? 

Notwithstanding  the  impulse  given  the  growth  of  discipline  and 
efficiency  in  the  service  by  the  introduction  of  the  war  element,  printed 
official  schemes,  case  examinations,  schedules  of  connections,  lists  of 
night  offices  and  time  of  closing,  facing  slips,  lists  of  exchanges  at 
termini,  trip  reports.  President  Grant's  celebrated  civil  service  order 
of  1873,  the  probationary  feature  which  enabled  the  officers  of  the 
service  to  ascertain  whether  the  habits,  morals,  memory,  physical  and 
intellectual  capacity  of  a  clerk  were  such  as  to  justify  his  being  given 
a  permanent  appointment,  and,  as  a  rule,  basing  promotions  on  merit 
alone — though  exceptions  were  made — the  effort  to  secure  the  discon- 
tinuance of  the  railway  post  office  system  and  the  restoration  of  the 
distributing  post  offices  grew  more  aggressive  each  year  under  the 
manipulations  and  misstatements  of  the  postmasters  of  some  of  the 
larger  post  offices  whose  opposition  was  founded,  as  one  editorial 
writer  stated,  "in  the  fact  that  it  swept  away  from  them  very  much  of 
the  political  power  which  they  possessed  under  the  old  system.     The 

postmasters  at then  had  hundreds  of  clerks  to 

appoint ;  they  now  have  but  scores,  as  the  labor  of  distribution  is  now 
done  while  in  transit,  instead  of  at  the  great  distributing  offices.  An 
effort  is  now  being  made  by  these  central  powers  to  reinstate  the  old 
methods  and  again  permit  us  to  'wait  a  week'  for  replies  to  our  letters 
from  New  York,"  etc. 

This  effort  culminated  in  a  fierce  and  unwarranted  attack  upon 
the  railway  post  office  system  during  the  closing  months  of  1873  and 
the  beginning  of  1874.  The  principal  assault  was  delivered  in  the 
Boston  Morning  Journal  of  January  16,  1874,  and  a  copy  of  the  paper 
was  sent  to  me.  I  saw  at  once  that  it  was  calculated  to  injure  our 
service  very  materially  if  its  misstatements  were  allowed  to  go  un- 
challenged, and  this  view  was  confirmed  by  the  announcement  made 
in  the  public  press,  "that  the  Senate  appropriations  committee  will 
propose  the  abolition  of  the  postal  car  system  on  railroads,  and  of  the 
free  delivery  of  letters,  hoping  thereby  to  cover  the  $7,000,000  defi- 
ciency in  the  postal  department.  As  to  the  free  delivery,  we  have  little 
to  say,  though  the  letter  receivers  would  be  very  loth  to  have  the  act 
repealed ;  but  as  to  the  postal  cars,  their  abolition,  and  a  return  to  the 
slow  and  uncertain  method  of  'distributing  offices,'  is  something  that 
the  business  community  would  not  put  up  with." 


72 

The  criticisms  made  upon  the  service  in  the  west  were  not  serious ; 
all  but  two  or  three  of  the  larger  offices  and  the  press  and  enlightened 
men  generally  were  its  friends  and  helped  fight  its  battles.  I  made  a 
study  of  the  article  which  appeared  in  the  Boston  Morning  Jourtial, 
and,  as  no  answer  had  been  published,  concluded  to  answer  it  myself, 
and  did  so  in  the  JVesteni  Postal  Record,  for  the  month  of  February, 
1874,  published  in  Chicago. 

The  article  published  in  the  Boston  Morning  Journal  was  headed, 
"The  Railway  Mail  Service  and  Postal  Cars,"  and  read: 

(From  the  Boston  Morning  Journal.) 

THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  SERVICE  AND  POSTAL  CARS. 

During  the  last  fifteen  years  there  has  grown  up  in  this  country, 
in  England  and  upon  the  continent  of  Europe  a  system  of  mail  ser- 
vice which  has  been  performed  upon  the  steam  railroads  in  the  cars 
while  in  motion,  which  is  known  as  Railway  Mail  Service,  or  the 
Postal  Car  Service,  and  this  service  has  been  increasing  on  all  the 
lines  of  the  railway  until  it  has  substantially  absorbed  all  other  mail 
transportation  on  the  lines  where  it  has  been  adopted.  It  was  deemed 
the  most  perfect  system  that  could  be  devised.  It  expedited  the  mails, 
and  the  Government  has  felt  justified  in  expending  enormous  sums 
to  perfect  and  extend  this  service ;  but  while  it  has  thus  been  perfect- 
ing itself,  the  growth  of  railway  transportation  and  the  means  of  sup- 
plying the  public  wants  of  travel  have  caused  a  corresponding  increase 
in  railroad  facilities,  and  we  are  to-day,  on  all  the  principal  lines  of 
road  between  Boston  and  New  York,  between  New  York  and  Wash- 
ington, New  York  and  Albany  and  Buffalo  and  Suspension  Bridge,  in 
a  condition  where  postal  car  service  has  entirely  fulfilled  its  mission, 
and  seems  ready  to  give  way  to  a  better  and  more  intelligent  service, 
which  can  be  performed  at  a  more  reasonable  expense. 

Whether  upon  the  cars  or  elsewhere  the  postal  service  is  not  an 
independently  sustained  service,  but  is  dependent  and  secures  its  ac- 
commodation through  alliances  with  existing  means  of  transportation. 
Moreover,  the  volume  of  mail  matter  has  so  rapidly  increased,  and  has 
grown  to  be  of  such  enormous  amount,  that  it  is  no  longer  possible  to 
accommodate  it  upon  any  one  train,  although  occupying  an  entire  car. 
It  is  as  idle  as  it  would  be  to  require  all  the  passengers,  who  now  fill  a 
dozen  succeeding  trains  on  each  of  our  lines  of  road,  to  occupy  one 
train  and  be  drawn  at  the  time  by  the  combined  locomotives  of  the 
several  trains  that  now  draw  them.  We  have  between  Boston  and 
New  York  two  postal  cars  daily  each  way,  and  when  they  were  estab- 


73 

lished,  they  were  run  upon  what  were  called  express  trains,  meaning 
thereby  the  fastest  trains  that  ran.  But  this  is  all  changed.  The 
postal  car  which  leaves  Boston  at  8  :30  a.  m.  is,  to  be  sure,  an  express 
train,  but  it  is  not  either  the  fastest  express  train  or  the  only  one  that 
would  accommodate  this  service,  and  Boston  is  in  a  condition  to-day 
of  being  deprived  of  mail  facilities  through  the  fact  that  these  postal 
cars  are  run.  If  we  had  no  postal  cars,  the  mail  would  be  made  up  in 
Boston,  not  only  for  the  8  :30  train  for  New  York,  but  also  at  10  o'clock 
for  New  York,  the  11:10  Short  Line  for  New  York,  both  of  which 
last  mails  are  now  delayed  for  points  beyond  New  York  twenty-four 
hours.  Mails  could  be  collected  in  Boston  from  a  circuit  of  country 
of  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles  in  season  for  the  11 :10  a.  m.  train.  These 
mails  could  reach  New  York  in  season  for  the  night  mail  train  for 
Washington.  Now  they  are  delayed  for  the  night  mail  from  Boston, 
which  reaches  New  York  in  the  morning,  leaving  there  at  9  o'clock  a, 
m.,  and  reaching  Washington  the  next  night,  letters  destined  for  busi- 
ness houses  and  delivery  by  carriers  not  reaching  their  destination  in 
Washington  until  the  following  morning. 

What  we  require  now  is  this :  Separate  the  large  mails  which 
lumber  up  a  single  train  and  forward  them  on  every  train  that  leaves 
Boston.  Let  the  first  mail  from  Boston  for  every  city  on  the  line  of 
the  Boston  &  Albany  Railroad  leave  Boston  on  the  5  o'clock  morning 
train.  At  half  past  eight  o'clock  let  the  mail  leave  for  New  York  and 
intervening  cities.  At  10  o'clock  a.  m.,  at  11 :10  a.  m.,  at  3  p.  m.,  at  5 
p.  m.,  and  at  9  p.  m.  let  the  mails  for  the  same  places  be  made  up  and 
sent  without  a  postal  car^  and  in  addition  to  this  let  there  be  placed 
upon  the  local  train  leaving  Boston  at  7  o'clock  in  the  morning  a  car  to 
do  the  local  service  between  all  the  offices  along  the  line  of  the  road. 
The  local  service  is  entirely  independent  of  the  great  through  service 
which  now  overshadows  everything.  The  same  thing  is  required  upon 
the  New  York  Central  Railroad.  It  is  no  benefit  to  anybody  that  they 
should  carry  postal  cars  on  such  express  trains  as  they  now  do. 
Through  mails  for  every  city  on  the  line  and  for  every  city  beyond 
should  be  made  up  in  New  York  and  dispatched  upon  each  succeeding 
express  train  from  8  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  11  o'clock  at  night. 
This,  especially  for  the  through  letter  mail,  would  secure  greater  dis- 
patch and  would  prove  no  incumbrance  whatever  to  the  trains  them- 
selves. All  the  letters  that  would  be  required  to  be  sent  on  each  train 
would  not  be  equal  to  the  Saratoga  trunks  of  a  single  female  passen- 
ger in  the  fashionable  season. 

It  now  costs  the  Department  six  hundred  dollars  per  mile,  per  an- 
num,  for  the  service  on  these  routes,  which   indicates  partially  the 


74 

enormous  expenditure  for  this  service,  and  even  this  amount  paid  is 
entirely  unsatisfactory  to  the  railroad  companies,  and  upon  examina- 
tion probably  will  prove  entirely  inadequate  to  the  service  required. 
Between  New  York  and  Washington  a  still  worse  system  of  things 
exists.  The  mail  leaves  New  York  for  Washington  at  9  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  although  trains  leave  three  hours  in  advance  and  reach  Phila- 
delphia before  the  postal  car  starts  from  Jersey  City.  From  Phila- 
delphia to  Washington  no  mail  is  furnished  until  this  postal  car  comes 
from  New  York,  and  a  city  of  a  million  inhabitants,  and  one  hundred 
and  thirty  miles  only  from  the  capital  of  her  country,  has  no  mail 
communication  during  the  day  that  reaches  Washington  in  season  for 
the  same  day's  delivery,  while  from  Boston  we  are  able  to  send  a 
postal  car  that  reaches  Albany,  a  distance  of  two  hundred  miles,  at 
noon,  and  Philadelphia  has  no  mail  that  reaches  Washington,  a  dis- 
tance of  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles,  until  night,  and  this  is  deliv- 
ered the  following  morning. 

Another  difficulty  with  the  postal  cars  is  this :  They  furnish  sub- 
stantially, with  all  this  expense,  but  one  mail  a  day  between  these 
principal  points.  Between  New  York  and  Washington  a  day  line  is 
of  no  advantage  to  business  men  at  the  terminal  points,  and  the  letters 
by  the  day  line  arriving  at  either  terminus  are  not  delivered  any 
sooner  than  those  starting  at  night,  making  but  one  mail  a  day  each 
way.  Still  another  difficulty  with  the  postal  cars  is  that  the  mails 
being  made  up  on  cars  running  between  New  York  and  Washington 
for  postal  cars  running  between  New  York  and  Boston,  and  vice  versa, 
any  failure  to  connect  renders  the  whole  distribution  of  the  mail  for 
the  day  useless,  and  the  mail  arriving  from  Washington  in  New  York 
in  the  morning  too  late  for  the  postal  car  leaving  for  Boston,  cannot 
be  forwarded  on  the  express  train  at  10  o'clock,  as  it  would  be  if  made 
up  for  each  city  on  the  line,  and  for  the  terminal  cities,  but  it  must 
lie  over  the  entire  twelve  hours  in  New  York  and  go  on  in  the  postal 
car  at  night. 

The  remedy  for  this  at  the  present  time  is  inexpensive  and  effi- 
cient. All  these  lines  of  road  run  five  or  six  and  some  eight  or  ten 
express  trains  daily,  upon  which,  as  the  presidents  of  the  different 
lines  have  frequently  stated  to  the  Post  Office  Department,  they  are 
perfectly  willing  to  carry  the  letter  mail  for  all  the  cities  on  their 
lines,  and  in  many  instances  they  have  offered  to  carry  it  for  nothing. 
It  is  stated  that  one  of  the  leading  railroad  presidents  offered  to  carry 
the  mails  out  of  the  postal  car  in  this  way  on  his  line  without  any 
compensation.    The  same  system  of  dividing  up  the  mails  and  carrying 


75 

them  in  an  inobtrusive  and  at  the  same  time  efficient  manner,  has  been 
estabHshed  to  all  points  on  the  horse  railroads  out  of  Boston.  Instead 
of  carrying  them  as  formerly  with  teams,  at  fixed  hours  three  or  four 
times  a  day,  they  are  now  sent  every  hour  for  ten  hours  per  day,  thus 
keeping  the  central  office  free  from  accumulating  mails  and  enabling 
the  officers  receiving  them  to  be  constantly  employed.  There  are  over 
two  hundred  such  mails  sent  from  the  Boston  office  regularly,  daily, 
none  of  them  reaching  a  point  more  than  three  miles  from  Boston. 
On  holidays  these  mails  are  not  forwarded  in  this  manner,  and  on  the 
succeeding  morning  it  frequently  requires  two-horse  wagons  for  them, 
and  when  placed  in  the  horse  cars  the  mails  load  them  down  to  the 
exclusion  of  passengers.  A  constant  running  stream  draws  off  what 
would  otherwise  accumulate  into  an  overpowering  torrent.  The  same 
common  sense  must  be  applied  to  the  transmission  of  our  enormous 
mails  upon  the  lines  of  railway.  With  eight  express  trains  in  each 
direction  between  Boston  and  New  York  daily,  there  is  certainly  no 
need  of  keeping  an  entire  car  upon  any  one  train  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  others. 

Another  very  important  item  to  the  Department  would  be  also 
a  saving  of  expense  in  the  employ  of  postal  car  clerks.  These  em- 
ployees are  paid  nearly  double  the  average  paid  for  the  performance 
of  the  same  service  in  the  office,  and  they  perform  about  half  the 
amount  of  work.  Postal  car  clerks  between  New  York  and  Boston 
run  every  alternate  week  and  make  one  trip  only  each  day.  They 
work  only  one-half  the  time ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  actual  cost  to  the 
Department  for  doing  the  same  work  is  four  times  what  it  would  be 
if  performed  in  the  post  offices,  and  this  certainly  can  only  be  justified 
on  the  ground  of  great  expedition,  which  we  have  shown  above  is  not 
secured  by  the  postal  car  service. 

But  there  is  still  another  aggravated  expense.  In  any  delay  of 
mails  upon  the  railroads — and  these  delays  occur  constantly  from  acci- 
dents both  to  freight  and  passenger  trains,  obstructions  of  bridges, 
delays  by  snow  and  flood — the  entire  mail  is  thrown  upon  the  offices 
at  the  termination  of  the  routes,  and  those  offices  must  necessarily  be 
supplied  with  sufficient  clerks  to  meet  any  such  emergency.  Were 
these  distributions  performed  regularly  at  the  offices,  and  lock-bags 
sent  to  every  principal  office,  and  not  opened  at  any  intervening  office, 
and  were  the  mails  sent  directly  from  railroad  station  to  railroad 
station  in  the  cities,  more  time  would  be  saved  than  all  that  is  now 
secured  upon  the  postal  car  trains.  The  running  time  required  be- 
tween New  York  and  Boston  is  eight  or  nine  hours,  and  yet  the  postal 


76 

car  arriving  in  New  York  at  5  a.  m.  remains  with  its  mail  until  9  a.  ra. 
before  leaving  for  Washington,  one-half  the  time  required  for  the 
whole  transmission.  This  extraordinary  and  expensive  work  is  per- 
formed in  this  extraordinary  and  expensive  manner,  not  to  make  close 
connections,  since  the  connections  that  have  been  permanently  ar- 
ranged are  disconnections. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  day  mail  arriving  in  New  York  at  5  p.  m. 
It  does  not  leave  for  Washington  until  9  p.  m. — an  abundance  of  time 
in  the  New  York  office  to  distribute  the  entire  mail.  If  this  postal 
service  was  being  performed  by  the  railroads  in  a  manner  that  was 
acceptable  to  the  Department  and  for  a  compensation  that  was  mu- 
tually satisfactory,  it  might  be  permitted  to  rest  for  awhile,  but  even 
then  it  can  do  its  work  only  for  a  few  years  longer.  But  the  railroads 
are  dissatisfied ;  the  Department  is  dissatisfied.  The  expenditures  for 
this  service  to-day  amount  to  millions  of  dollars  annually,  and  these 
are  some  of  the  results.  The  appropriation  for  the  Post  Ofiice  De- 
partment, we  venture  to  say,  can  be  reduced  three  million  dollars  this 
year  and  better  service  secured  for  the  public,  more  satisfactory  ser- 
vice for  the  railroads,  and  the  inauguration  of  a  plan  for  the  future 
transmission  of  the  mails  on  these  crowded  lines  of  railway  that  will 
meet  the  approbation  of  everybody,  and  would  expand  indefinitely 
with  the  growth  of  the  roads. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  service  is  more  for  the  intermediate  por- 
tions of  the  lines  that  this  expense  is  incurred.  This  is  true.  We  have 
four  postal  cars  between  Boston  and  Springfield,  a  distance  of  one 
hundred  miles,  and  yet  between  Boston  and  Providence,  New  London 
and  New  Haven,  a  line  of  cities  and  business  of  equal  importance 
with  any,  have  no  postal  car  service,  and  between  Boston  and  Provi- 
dence not  even  a  route  agent  runs  upon  the  road.  The  mails  are  all 
made  up  and  dispatched  from  the  terminal  offices,  and  yet  there  is  no 
distance  in  New  England  where  there  is  more  passengers  or  business 
travel,  or  where  there  are  more  intimate  financial  and  business  opera- 
tions than  between  Boston  and  New  York  and  the  cities  along  the 
Providence  line. 

At  all  events  this  subject,  in  these  days  of  retrenchment  and  re- 
form, is  one  that  will  bear  scrutiny,  and  if  we  are  doing  what  is  not  the 
best,  but  which  costs  us  most  enormously,  we  ought  to  survey  the  whole 
field,  and  if  possible  test  by  experiment  some  change. 


77 

My  answer  was  headed: 

"R.  M.  S." 

"The    Railway    Mail    Service   as    Compared    with   the    Route    Agent 

System  of  Distribution." 
and  read : — 

(Western  Postal  Record,  Feb.,  1874.) 

The  Boston  Morning  Journal,  of  January  16th,  1874,  contains  an 
article  of  nearly  a  column  and  a  half  in  length,  upon  what  is  known 
as  the  Railway  Post  Office  Service.  The  tone  and  general  style  of  the 
article  indicates  that  it  was  written  or  dictated  by  some  one  connected 
with  the  postal  service  of  the  United  States,  and  as  it  abounds  in  er- 
roneous statements,  and  is  predicated  upon  a  state  of  things  that  does 
not  exist,  it  is  but  fair  to  conclude  that  the  author  is  ignorant  of  the 
true  object  of  the  service — does  not  realize  what  it  is  accomplishing — 
or  else,  knowing  its  object,  and  realizing  the  work  it  is  performing, 
he,  for  reasons  of  his  own,  chooses  to  place  himself  in  a  position  of 
antagonism  to  it ;  and  when  we  come  to  consider  that  it  appeared 
originally  in  a  Boston  paper,  and  that  there  is,  perhaps,  but  one 
person  in  Boston,  or  New  England,  who'  has  felt  it  in- 
cumbent upon  him  to  oppose  this  service  upon  every  occa- 
sion, both  in  his  official  and  private  capacity,  and  that  this  person 
is  shorn  of  political  power  and  patronage  that  he  previously  possessed, 
and  would  now  possess  and  control  were  it  not  for  this  service,  it  will 
be  seen  at  once  that  it  does  not  require  the  gift  of  omniscience  to 
name  the  writer,  or  to  reveal  the  motive  which  impels  him  to  this  an- 
tagonism. 

We  maintain  that  the  railway  post  office  service  is  far  from  having 
"fulfilled  its  mission,"  and  also  that  there  cannot  be  "a  better  and  more 
intelligent  service"  established  either  at  less  or  greater  expense  to  the 
Government,  and  we  expect  to  demonstrate  this  fact  before  this  article 
is  finished. 

The  gentleman  will  not  contend  that  any  system  of  distribution 
or  transportation  could  be  organized,  that  would  give  to  the  mails  any 
better  advantages,  as  to  time  in  transit,  than  is  enjoyed  by  first-class 
passengers ;  the  system  advocated  by  him  will  not  do  this,  while  the 
railway  post  office  service  is  intended  to,  and  does  accomplish  this 
result  everywhere  where  it  has  been  established  west  of  New  York 
and  Washington,  and  in  some  cases  it  accomplishes  more  than  this : 
it  has  a  quicker  transit  between  certain  points  on  all  trunk  lines  than 
first-class  passengers,  and  this  is  accomplished  through  the  assistance 


78 

of  what  is  known  as  "Ward's  Mail  Catcher,"  which  is  auxiliary  to  the 
railway  post  office  and  operates  in  conjunction  with  a  "crane." 

Here,  in  the  west,  all  of  our  railway  post  offices  are  run  upon 
fast  express  trains,  which  do  not  stop  at  many  of  the  small  way  sta- 
tions ;  hence  a  person  desiring  to  take  passage  from  one  of  these  way 
stations  for  some  distant  point  is  compelled  to  start  from  his  home 
on  an  "accommodation  train/'  several  hours,  perhaps,  in  advance  of 
the  arrival  of  the  through  fast  express,  and  ride  to  some  station  where 
the  through  express  does  stop,  and  there  change  from  the  one  train  to 
the  other ;  whereas,  a  letter  or  paper  may  be  deposited  in  the  post 
office  at  the  station  from  which  this  person  started,  addressed  to  the 
place  of  his  destination  several  hours  after  he  has  taken  passage,  and 
arrive  at  the  objective  point  as  soon  as  he,  because  it  will  be  placed  in 
a  pouch  by  the  postmaster,  and  just  before  the  through  fast  express 
train  is  due,  the  pouch  will  be  suspended  upon  the  crane  so  as  to  be 
caught  by  the  catcher,  and  be  taken  into  the  railway  post  office,  as 
the  train  passes,  opened  and  the  contents  distributed ;  which  means 
that  the  letters  and  papers,  in  passing  through  the  hands  of  the  head 
clerks  and  clerks,  will  be  so  disposed  of  as  to  keep  them  in  motion 
until  they  arrive  at  the  office  of  destination. 

The  accommodation  trains  are  run  without  reference  to  connec- 
tions at  terminal  points  and  junctions,  being  intended  to  transact  the 
local  business  between  station  and  station  on  the  line,  and  any  business 
man  who  ships  goods  or  takes  passage  on  one  of  these  trains,  for  any 
place  not  on  the  line,  in  the  expectation  that  he  or  they  will  arrive  at 
the  point  of  destination  in  time  to  transact  business,  or  to  realize  on 
the  goods  within  the  first  thirty  days  after  shipment,  is  as  certain  of 
being  a  bankrupt  as  he  is  of  any  thing  this  side  of  eternity. 

Under  the  system  advocated  by  the  gentleman  from  Boston,  mail 
matter,  say  for  the  state  of  Illinois,  mailed  at  offices  on  any  of  the 
lines  of  roads  centering  at  Boston,  from  the  north,  would  be  forwarded 
from  the  mailing  office  to  the  route  agent  running  upon  an  accommo- 
dation train,  and  be,  by  him,  massed  upon  the  Boston  office,  and  be 
there  held  for  distribution.  In  making  this  distribution  the  Boston 
office  would  mass  a  portion  of  the  state  upon  each  of  the  following 
offices :  Cleveland  and  Cincinnati,  Ohio ;  Indianapolis,  Ind. ;  Cairo 
and  Chicago,  111.  This  massing  involves  a  delay  of  twelve  hours  for 
all  the  larger  or  "night  offices,"  and  twenty-four  hours  for  those  not 
exchanging  pouches  with  these  distributing  offices  by  night  express 
trains,  at  each  of  the  offices  named.     Take  for  instance,  three  letters 


79 

mailed  at  some  point  on  the  "Eastern  &  Maine  Central  R.  R.,"  one 
addressed  to  Geneseo,  one  to  Colona,  and  one  to  Mokena,  111.  The 
former  is  a  "night  office"  on  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  R.  R., 
and  is  supplied  with  eastern  mail  twice  daily ;  once  by  the  railway 
post  office  departing  from  Chicago  at  10  :15  a.  m.,  and  once  by  through 
or  "night  pouch"  leaving  Chicago  on  express  train  at  10  :00  p.  m.  in 
charge  of  train  baggageman.  Colona  is  a  station  on  the  same  line, 
and  also  receives  its  eastern  mail  twice  daily,  but  in  a  different  way : 
once  by  the  railway  post  office,  and  once  by  means  of  what  is  known 
as  an  "express  mail."  Mokena  is  also  a  station  upon  this  line,  but  as 
it  is  neither  a  "night  office,"  nor  comes  within  the  scope  of  an  "express 
mail,"  it  receives  its  eastern  mail  but  once  daily.  These  three  letters 
having  been  placed  in  charge  of  the  route  agent  by  the  postmaster  of 
the  mailing  office,  would  be  massed,  with  other  letters  addressed  to 
offices  in  the  western  states,  in  packages,  and  on  arrival  of  the  agent 
at  Boston,  would  be  sent  to  the  Boston  office  for  distribution.  Here, 
in  the  west,  all  of  our  railway  post  office  trains  run  to  make  eastern 
and  western  connections,  and  to  make  the  illustration  hold  good  we 
will  assume  that  the  same  system  obtains  in  the  east.  Working  upon 
this  hypothesis,  we  will  say  that  the  accommodation  train  upon  which 
this  agent  arrived  at  Boston,  arrived  there  in  time  for  the  passengers 
to  make  connection  out  of  Boston  by  the  5  :00  p.  m.  train  for  the  west, 
(In  this  connection  it  is  proper  to  state  that,  under  the  route  agent 
system,  it  makes  no  difference  whether  these  letters  arrived  at  Bos- 
ton on  an  accommodation  or  a  fast  express  train,  the  illustration  holds 
good  in  either  case,)  but  this  mail  could  not,  for  the  reason  that  it 
must  lay  in  the  Boston  office  for  distribution,  and  as  it  has  missed  the 
5 :00  p.  m.  connection,  it  may  as  well  lay  there  until  the  8  :30  a.  m. 
train  departs,  because,  if  sent  out  by  the  9  :00  p.  m.  train,  the  letters 
will  arrive  at  Chicago  40  minutes  after  mail  dispatched  by  the  8  :30  a. 
m.  train.  This  makes  a  delay  of  15|  hours  at  Boston.  These  letters 
will  arrive  at  Chicago  at  9  :00  p.  m.,  Chicago  time,  and  as  the  mail 
with  which  they  are  massed,  cannot  be  taken  to  the  post  office,  be 
distributed  and  taken  to  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  depot  in 
an  hour,  Geneseo  and  Colona  will  have  to  lay  in  the  Chicago  office 
from  9:00  p.  m.  until  10:15  a.  m.,  11^  hours;  making  in  all  a  delay  of 
26|  hours  between  the  mailing  office  and  the  office  of  delivery.  But 
supposing  the  mail  train  does  not  arrive  at  Boston  in  time  for  the 
passengers  to  make  the  5  :00  p.  m.  connection  west,  say  it  arrives  there 
at  7  :10  p.  m.,  then  the  passengers  will  have  ample  time  to  make  the 
9  :00  p.  m.  connection  for  all  points  reached  by  that  train  and  its  con- 
nections, but  all  mail  brought  in  by  that  train  for  points  between  Bos- 


80 

ton  and  New  York,  and  New  York  and  Washington,  and  Chicago, 
including  those  points,  would  be  delayed  in  Boston  till  morning,  while 
the  delay,  in  the  case  of  letters  used  in  this  illustration,  would  remain 
the  same  as  before,  except  that  the  system  would  not  be  responsible  for 
the  delay  at  Boston.  But  how  will  the  writer  account  for  the  delay  of 
11;J  hours  at  Chicago ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  these  letters  are  forwarded 
to  Boston  in  a  through  or  night  pouch  by  train  arriving  at  Boston  at 
6  :00  a.  m.,  the  passengers  who  came  in  on  that  train  could  make  the 
8  :30  a.  m.  connection,  but  the  mail  could  not  be  taken  to  the  Boston 
office,  distributed,  re-pouched  and  taken  to  the  8  :30  a.  m.  train  in  two 
hours  and  a  half;  hence  these  letters  would  be  subjected  to  delay  from 
8  :30  a.  m.  until  5  :00  p.  m.  at  Boston — 8^  hours,  and  would  arrive  at 
Chicago  at  8 :30  a.  m.,  and  as  this  mail  could  not  be  taken  to  the 
Chicago  office,  be  distributed  and  taken  to  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island 
&  Pacific  depot  in  an  hour  and  forty-five  minutes,  Geneseo  and  Colona 
would  have  to  remain  in  the  Chicago  office  until  10  :00  p.  m.,  making 
a  delay  of  13^  hours  here,  and  in  the  aggregate  a  delay  of  22  hours. 
And  as  Mokena  is  only  supplied  with  mail  by  the  regular  mail  train, 
the  letter  for  that  office  would  be  delayed  12^  hours  longer,  making  in 
the  aggregate  a  delay  of  34|  hours.  These  delays  could  not  be  avoided, 
under  the  system  advocated  in  the  Boston  Morning  Journal,  because  't 
cannot  be  demonstrated  that  such  a  distribution  could  be  made  in  the 
Boston  office  as  would  do  away  with  them ;  tO'  accomplish  this 
result  every  office  located  on  a  railway  line  would  have  to  ex- 
change pouches  with  every  other  office  similarly  located,  or,  in 
following  out  the  plan  suggested  in  the  article,  we  would  have  to  dis- 
criminate in  favor  of  the  few  larger  offices,  and  in  that  case  the  ex- 
change would  have  to  be  direct  between  office  and  office.  Springfield, 
Mass.,  would  have  to  receive  and  forward  as  many  pouches  daily  as 
Boston,  or  she  would  not  derive  the  same  benefits,  and  in  that 
event  special  mail  trains  would  have  to  be  run  upon  all  trunk  lines ; 
the  messenger  service  would  have  to  be  increased  at  all  such  points ; 
the  clerical  force  would  have  to  be  doubled,  and  the  post  office  build- 
ings enlarged,  and  the  compensation  of  the  railway  companies  instead 
of  being  lessened  would  be  augmented  beyond  computation.  The  de- 
lay shown  in  the  case  of  Illinois  mail,  would  occur  in  precisely  the 
same  manner  with  mail  matter  for  all  offices  in  the  western  states, 
and  reversing  the  case  it  would  apply  with  equal  force  to  all  mail 
matter  passing  from  the  west  to  the  east. 

Geneseo,  Colona,  and  Mokena,  111.,  in  forwarding  mail  addressed 
to  offices  supplied  from  the  Eastern  &  Maine  Central  R.  R.  would 
send  them  to  Chicago  in  charge  of  a  route  agent  arriving  here  at  4:00 


81 

p.  m.,  the  agent  would  mass  them,  with  all  other  letters  received  by 
him  for  New  England,  upon  the  Chicago  office  for  distribution ;  and 
as  the  first  train  for  Boston  departs  from  Chicago  at  5  :15  p.  m.,  this 
mail  could  not  be  connected,  though  the  passengers  who  came  in  on 
that  train,  would  have  ample  time  to  make  the  connection.  Chicago, 
in  making  this  distribution,  would  mass  all  of  Massachusetts,  except 
Berkshire,  Franklin,  Hampden,  Hampshire,  and  Worcester  counties, 
upon  the  Boston  office  for  a  second  distribution.  New  Hampshire, 
except  Cheshire,  Grafton,  and  Sullivan  counties,  would  be  disposed 
of  in  like  manner,  and  York  county,  Maine,  would  also  be  massed  upon 
Boston  for  the  same  reason.  The  remainder  of  Maine  would  be 
made  up  in  the  Portland  Distributing  Post  Office,  and  the  five  coun- 
ties in  Massachusetts,  and  the  three  in  New  Hampshire,  named  above, 
would  be  massed  upon  the  Albany,  N.  Y.,  Distributing  Post  Office, 
and  be  there  held  for  this  second  distribution.  The  presumption  is  that 
this  mail  would  not  be  forwarded  from  Chicago  until  8  :30  a.  m.,  mak- 
ing a  delay  here  of  15|  hours,  but  supposing  the  distribution  is  per- 
formed in  time  to  make  the  10 :00  p.  m.  connection  east,  this  mail 
would  then  arrive  at  Boston  six  hours  and  fifty  minutes  after  the 
passengers,  and  as  it  would  arrive  there  at  4  :50  p.  m.,  and  would  have 
to  be  taken  from  the  depot  of  the  A.  &  B.  R.  R.  to  the  office,  unlocked, 
distributed,  re-locked  and  taken  to  the  depot  of  the  Eastern  &  Maine 
Central  R.  R.,  such  offices  as  would  be  supplied  by  night  pouches  from 
Boston  could  not  make  the  8  :00  p.  m.  connection,  hence  they  would 
have  to  remain  in  Boston  until  7  :30  or  8  :30  a.  m.,  making  a  delay  of 
fourteen  hours  and  forty  minutes  at  Boston,  making  in  all  a  delay  of 
either  21^,  22^,  30  or  31  hours. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  these  letters  should  be  forwarded  to  Chir 
cago  by  night  pouch  from  Geneseo,  they  would  arrive  here  at  6  :30  a. 
m.,  and  as  this  mail  would  have  to  be  taken  to  the  Chicago  office,  be 
distributed  and  taken  back  .to  the  depot,  the  8  :30  a.  m.  connection  east 
could  not  be  made,  whereas  the  passengers  could  make  it  without  any 
difficulty;  hence  the  mail  would  remain  here  until  5:15  p.  m.,  making 
a  delay  of  eight  hours  and  forty-five  minutes  at  Chicago,  and  as  this 
mail  would  arrive  at  Boston  at  10  :00  a.  m.,  and  could  not  be  taken 
to  the  office,  be  distributed  and  taken  to  the  depot  in  time  to  make  the 
12:30  p.  m.  connection  north,  such  portions  of  it  as  would  otherwise 
have  been  forwarded  from  Boston  in  through  pouches  to  the  offices 
of  delivery,  by  the  12  :30  p.  m.  train  would  have  to  remain  in  Boston 
until  the  departure  of  the  3  :15  or  8  :00  p.  m.  trains,  making  a  delay  of 
5^  or  1()|  hours  at  Boston,  and  an  actual  delay,  to  this  mail,  of  11| 
or  16^  hours,  in  the  aggregate. 


83 

Under  the  present,  or  Railway  Post  Office  system,  these  letters 
would  be  forwarded  from  the  mailing  offices  to  the  Boston  &  Bangor 
R.  P.  O.  Working  upon  the  same  hypothesis  in  this  illustration,  as  in 
the  former  one,  we  will  assume  that  the  train  upon  which  this  R.  P. 
O.  arrives  at  Boston  arrives  in  time  for  the  passengers  to  make  the 
5 :00  p.  m.  connection  west.  The  clerks  in  this  R.  P.  O.  would  place 
the  Geneseo,  Colona  and  Mokena  letters  in  packages  with  all  other 
letters  received  by  them  for  the  state  of  Illinois,  and  on  their  arrival 
at  Boston  would  forward  them,  with  all  other  western  mail  received 
by  them,  to  the  Buffalo  &  Chicago  R.  P.  O.,  by  the  5  :00  p.  m.  train. 
There  would  be  no  delay  at  Boston,  providing  the  trains  were  run  in 
connection,  because  the  distribution,  necessary  to  prevent  such  an 
occurrence,  would  have  been  made  by  the  clerks  in  the  Boston  &  Ban- 
gor R.  P.  O.,  while  in  transit  between  Bangor  and  Boston.  After  be- 
ing pouched  by  the  clerks,  this  mail  would  be  transferred  direct  from 
the  depot  of  the  Boston  &  Bangor  line,  to  the  depot  of  the  Boston  & 
Albany  R.  R.,  and  away  it  would  go,  arriving  at  Buffalo  at  13  :30  p. 
m.  on  the  same  train  as  the  passengers.  At  Buffalo  it  would  be  trans- 
ferred from  the  New  York  Central  train  to  the  Buffalo  &  Chicago  R. 
P.  O.,  while  the  trains  of  both  roads  were  standing  in  the  same  depot. 

The  Buffalo  &  Chicago  R.  P.  O.'s  run  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago 
on  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  R.  R.  There  are  two  railway 
post  offices  passing  over  this  route,  each  way  daily ;  one  departs  from 
Buffalo  at  13  :35  p.  m.,  and  the  other  at  1 :00  a.  m.,  and  each  of  them 
carry  from  00,000  to  70,000  letters  and  from  13  to  15  tons  of  papers 
west,  and  from  40,000  to  50,000  letters,  and  from  3  to  3  tons  of 
papers  east,  daily. 

In  twenty  minutes  after  the  arrival  of  this  mail  at  Buffalo,  it 
would  start  on  its  way  toward  Chicago,  arriving  here  at  8  :30  a.  m.,  and 
the  clerks  would  commence  the  distribution  of  this  immense  mass  of 
matter — taking  up,  first  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri, 
Kansas,  Texas,  Colorado,  &c.,  because  letters  and  papers  for  these  states 
must  be  placed  in  shape  for  delivery  at  way  stations,  and  for  forward- 
ing, to  points  of  destination,  by  diverging  lines,  between  Buffalo  and 
Toledo.  Some  portions  of  this  Illinois  matter,  after  being  distributed, 
would  be  sent  to  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  R.  P.  O.,  via  Cincinnati,  Ohio; 
some  to  Indianapolis  &  St.  Louis  R.  P.  O.,  and  other  routes,  via  In- 
dianapolis, Ind. ;  a  large  portion  to  the  LaFayette  &  Quincy  R.  P.  O., 
via  LaFayette,  Ind.,  and  the  remainder  \vould  be  forwarded  to  the 
railway  post  office  and  route  agent  lines  diverging  from  Chicago,  and 
none  of  it  would  see  the  inside  of  a  distributing  post  office.  In  making 
this  distribution  they  would  place  the  three  letters,  used  in  the  illustra- 


83 

tion,  in  a  pouch  tagged  Chicago  &  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.,  (Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific  R.  R.)  and  on  arrival  at  Chicago  this  pouch  would  be 
taken  direct  from  the  Buflfalo  &  Chicago  R.  P.  O.  car  to  the  Chicago 
&  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.  car,  where  it  would  be  opened,  the  contents  dis- 
tributed, and  on  arrival  of  this  railway  post  office  at  the  three  offices 
mentioned — the  letters  would  be  pouched,  then  placed  in  charge  of  a 
messenger,  who  would  deliver  them  into  the  hands  of  the  postmasters. 
No  delay  would  have  occurred  to  the  mail  from  the  time  it  left  the 
mailing  office,  until  it  arrived  at  the  office  of  delivery.  But  to  follow 
out  the  illustration  we  will  proceed  to  consider  that  the  Boston  &  Ban- 
gor R.  P.  O.  does  not  arrive  at  Boston  in  time  to  make  the  5  :00  p.  m. 
connection  west;  say  it  arrives  there  at  7:10  p.  m. — in  that  event  the 
passengers  and  mail,  for  points  west,  north  and  south  of  Chicago — 
might  as  well  remain  in  Boston  until  8  :30  a.  m. ;  but  all  matter  for  the 
larger  or  night  offices  between  Boston  and  New  York,  including  New 
York,  and  for  all  the  stations  between  New  York  and  Hartford,  (and 
the  offices  supplied  by  them),  on  the  New  York  &  Boston  line,  could  be 
supplied  before  this  mail  would  have  left  Boston  under  the  arrange- 
ment advocated  in  the  Boston  Morning  Journal;  because  on  arrival  of 
this  railway  post  office  at  Boston,  this  matter  and  matter  for  all  con- 
necting lines  out  of  New  York,  Hartford,  New  Haven  and  other  junc- 
tions, would  be  transferred  direct  to  the  New  York  &  Boston  R.  P. 
O.,  leaving  Boston  at  9  :00  p.  m.  A  distribution  of  this  matter  would 
be  made  in  this  railway  post  office  while  in  transit ;  mails  would  be 
delivered  at  the  principal  offices  on  the  line  and  to  the  connecting  lines, 
and  that  portion  of  the  matter  addressed  to  the  smaller  offices,  lying 
between  New  York  and  Hartford,  would  be  carried  through  to  New 
York,  delivered  to  the  day  railway  post  office,  leaving  New  York  at 
8  :05  a.  m.,  and  be  delivered  at  all  these  points  before  the  railway  post 
office,  leaving  Boston  at  8  :30  a.  m.,  would  arrive  at  Hartford. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  letters  for  Geneseo  and  Colona  were 
forwarded  from  the  mailing  offices,  via  the  Boston  &  Bangor  R.  P.  O., 
arriving  at  Boston  at  0:00  a.  m.,  they  would  be  forwarded  to  the 
Buffalo  Sr  Chicago  R.  P.  O.,  by  the  train  departing  from  Boston  at 
8  :30  a.  m.,  and  as  that  is  the  first  through  train  departing  from  Bos- 
ton in  the  morning,  there  would  be  no  delay  there.  They  would  arrive 
at  Buffalo  at  1 :00  a.  m.,  and  be  immediately  transferred  to  the  Buffalo 
&  Chicago  R.  P.  O.,  which  railway  post  office  would  start  for  Chicago 
at  once.  The  clerks  in  this  railway  post  office,  in  making  a  distribution 
of  the  GO, 000  or  70,000  letters  massed  upon  them,  would  place  the 
Geneseo  letter  in  a  pigeon  hole,  with  a  number  of  other  letters  for  the 
same  place,  and  on  their  arrival  at  Chicago,  at  9  :00  p.  m.,  they  would 


84 

tie  these  letters  out,  and  forward  them  to  Geneseo  in  a  night  pouch 
departing  from  Chicago  at  10 :00  p.  m. ;  the  letters  arriving  at  their 
destination  in  time  for  delivery  in  the  morning.  The  Colona  letter 
and  all  other  letters  received  by  them  for  offices,  not  night  offices, 
between  Davenport,  Iowa,  and  Morris,  111.,  (121  miles)  would  be 
placed  in  a  pigeon  hole  labelled  "Express  Mail,  Chicago  &  Iowa  City 
R.  P.  O.,  Moline  East,"  and  on  arrival  of  these  clerks  at  Chicago,  they 
would  tie  these  letters  out,  and  forward  them,  in  a  pouch  tagged  "Ex- 
press Mail,  Moline  East,"  by  the  10  :00  p.  m.  train  to  Moline,  arriving 
there  at  6:12  a.  m.,  and  when  the  railway  post  office  bound  east  arrives 
at  Moline,  at  8  :38  a.  m.,  this  pouch  would  be  taken  in  charge  by  the 
clerks,  be  opened,  the  contents  distributed,  and  the  matter  delivered  at 
the  offices  of  destination  before  it  would  have  been,  had  it  been  held 
for  the  regular  railway  post  office  departing  from  Chicago  in  the 
morning.  Thus  it  will  be  seen,  that,  under  the  railway  post  office 
system,  all  classes  of  mail  matter  receive  the  same  advantages,  as  to 
time  in  transit,  that  is  enjoyed  by  first-class  passengers,  and  in  some 
cases  better;  whereas,  under  the  system  advocated  in  the  Boston  Morn- 
ing Journal,  the  mail  always  arrives  at  its  destination  long  after  the 
passenger. 

What  has  been  demonstrated  in  the  case  of  mail  passing  from  the 
east,  under  this  railway  post  office  system,  to  the  west,  can  be  shown 
equally  as  well  in  the  case  of  mail  passing  from  the  west  to  the  east. 

The  difference  is  this :  Under  the  route  agent,  mail  route  mes- 
senger, and  distributing  post  office  system,  the  work  of  distribution 
would  be  confined  to  one  or  more  large  offices  in  each  of  the  larger, 
or  more  densely  populated  states,  and  mail  matter  passing  over  any  of 
the  railway  lines  for  points  not  on  that  line,  would  be  massed  upon 
the  nearest  distributing  post  office,  and  be  there  held  for  distribution 
in  the  manner  shown  above,  and  after  this  distribution  has  been  made 
some  portions  of  the  same  mail  would  be  massed  upon  the  distributing 
post  office  lying  nearest  the  offices  to  be  supplied,  and  would  there  be 
again  delayed  for  a  second  distribution. 

Route  agents  would  make  a  distribution  of  such  matter  as  would 
be  supplied  direct  from  their  own  route ;  that  is,  they  would  perform 
the  local  service  between  the  terminal  points  of  their  routes  only, 
leaving  the  distribution  for  points  beyond  to  be  performed  in  the 
distributing  post  offices ;  whereas,  under  the  railway  post  office  system 
the  clerks  not  only  perform  the  local  service  of  their  routes,  but  in 
addition  to  this,  they  distribute  all  that  matter  that  route  agents  would 
mass  upon  D.  P.  O's.    Under  this  system  route  agents,  mail  route  mes- 


85 

sengers,  and  distributing  post  ofifices  mass  on  railway  post  offices,  and 
thus  obviate  the  delays  that  would  otherwise  occur. 

As  to  the  statement,  "Boston  is  in  a  condition  to-day  of  being  de- 
prived of  mail  facilities  through  the  fact  that  these  postal  cars  are  run. 
If  we  had  no  postal  cars  the  mail  would  be  made  up  in  Boston,  not 
only  for  the  8  :30  train  for  New  York,  but  also  at  10  o'clock  for  New 
York,  the  11 :10  Shore  Line  for  New  York,  both  of  which  last  mails 
are  delayed  for  points  beyond  New  York  twenty-four  hours.  A  con- 
stant running  stream  draws  off  what  would  otherwise  accumulate  into 
an  overpowering  torrent.  The  same  common  sense  must  be  applied 
to  the  transmission  of  our  enormous  mails  upon  the  lines  of  railway. 
With  eight  express  trains  in  each  direction  between  Boston  and  New 
York  daily,  there  is  certainly  no  need  of  keeping  an  entire  car  upon 
any  one  train  to  the  exclusion  of  the  others,"  we  have  this  to  say : 
There  are  but  three  through  trains  from  Boston  to  the  west  daily,  the 
8  :30  a.  m.,  the  5  :00  p.  m.,  and  the  9  :00  p.  m.,  and  the  last  one  is  of 
but  little  account  for  through  western  matter,  simply  because  the  8  :30 
a.  m.  train  leaving  Boston  "11|"  hours  after  it,  arrives  at  Chicago  40 
minutes  before  it  does,  and  as  the  8  :30  a.  m.  train  is  a  R.  P.  O.,  and  has 
a  through  connection  for  the  west,  and  runs  into  New  York  city,  there 
is  no  reason  why  mail  for  New  York  should  not  be  dispatched  by  this 
train.  It  will  certainly  be  better  protected  than  it  would  be  if  sent  in 
charge  of  a  train  baggageman ;  besides  this  there  is  no  reason  why 
the  Boston  office  should  not,  so  far  as  New  York,  and  to  it,  other 
western  matter  is  concerned,  "dump"  itself  into  this  R.  P.  O.  by  states. 
Moreover,  if  the  postmaster  at  Boston  does  not  forward  his  New  York 
city,  Philadelphia  and  Washington,  D.  C,  matter  to  those  points  by 
every  passenger  train  departing  from  Boston  for  those  points,  either 
via  the  four  R.  P.  O.'s  that  run  through  to  New  York,  or  have  a  direct 
connection  through  to  the  same  point,  or  else  in  through  pouches  by 
the  trains  that  are  not  R.  P.  O.'s  he  does  not  do  his  duty.  He  is  not 
expected  to  forward  matter  intended  for  delivery  in  such  a  large  city 
by  the  railway  post  offices  alone,  unless  all  the  passenger  trains  running 
between  his  office  and  those  offices  are  railway  post  offices ;  on  the 
contrary  it  is  expected  that  he  v/ill  forward  such  mail  by  every  passen- 
ger train  running  between  his  office  and  those  points,  taking  advantage 
of  the  railway  post  offices  when  he  can  do  so,  and  when  he  cannot, 
pouching  direct  upon  the  offices. 

Mail  dispatched  from  Boston  for  all  points  west  of  New  York 
by  the  5  :00  p.  m.  train  will  arrive  at  its  destination  as  soon  as  if  sent 
by  the  10:00  a.  m.,  11:10,  or  3:00  p.  m.  trains;  hence  this  mail  is  not 
delayed    at    all    by  not  being  sent  by  those  trains,  and  if  sent    by 


86 

them  it  explodes  the  constant  running  stream  business,  be- 
cause while  it  may  keep  the  source  clear  it  will  flood  New 
York,  for  as  shown  above^  the  stream  would  be  dammed 
up  at  that  point;  in  order  to  prevent  an  "overpowering  torrent,"  it  is 
necessary  that  the  stream  be  kept  free  of  obstructions  all  the  way  from 
its  source  to  its  mouth.  The  arrangement  advocated  would  dam  it  up 
at  all  distributing  post  ofifices,  whereas,  the  railway  post  offices  assist 
the  flow  by  keeping  the  volume  in  motion  from  the  source  to  the 
mouth,  and  by  relieving  the  main  stream  at  all  junctions,  and  by  run- 
ning these  distributing  post  office  blockades  wherever  they  come  in  con- 
tact with  them. 

"It  now  costs  the  Department  six  hundred  dollars  per  mile  per 
annum  for  the  service  on  these  routes,  which  indicates  partially  the 
enormous  expenditure  for  this  service,  and  even  this  amount  paid  is 
entirely  unsatisfactory  to  the  railroad  companies^,  and  upon  examina- 
tion probably  will  prove  entirely  inadequate  to  the  service  rendered," 
is  another  statement  made  in  the  Morning  Journal,  and  in  a  previous 
section  the  statement  is  made,  in  speaking  of  dispatching  through 
mails  by  every  express  train  departing  from  New  York,  that,  "This, 
especially  for  the  through  letter  mail  would  secure  greater  dispatch 
and  would  prove  no  incumbrance  whatever  to  the  trains  themselves. 
All  the  letters  that  would  be  required  to  be  sent  on  each  train  would 
not  be  equal  to  the  Saratoga  trunks  of  a  single  female  passenger  in 
the  fashionable  season." 

The  law  in  reference  to  compensation  paid  railroad  companies  is 
as  follows  ;********** 

"Provided:  That  the  Postmaster  General  be,  and  he  is  hereby 
authorized  and  directed,  to  re-adjust  the  compensation  hereafter  to 
be  paid  for  the  transportation  of  mails  on  railroad  routes  upon  the 
conditions  and  at  the  rates  hereinafter  mentioned,  to  wit :  That  the 
mail  shall  be  conveyed  with  due  frequency  and  speed ;  that  sufficient 
and  suitable  room,  fixtures,  and  furniture,  in  a  car  or  apartment  pro- 
perly lighted  and  warmed,  shall  be  provided  for  route  agents  to  ac- 
company and  distribute  the  mails ;  and  that  the  pay  per  mile  per  annum 
shall  not  exceed  the  following  rates,  namely :  on  routes  carrying  their 
whole  length  an  average  weight  of  mails  per  day  of  two  hundred 
pounds,  fifty  dollars;  five  hundred  pounds,  seventy-five  dollars;  one 
thousand  pounds,  one  hundred  dollars ;  one  thousand  five  hundred 
pounds,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars ;  two  thousand  pounds, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars ;  three  thousand  five  hundred  pounds, 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars ;  five  thousand  pounds,  two  hun- 
dred dollars ;  and  twenty-five  dollars  additional   for  every  additional 


87 

two  thousand  pounds,  the  average  weight  to  be  ascertained,  in  every 
case,  by  the  actual  weight  of  the  mails  for  such  a  number  of  successive 
working  days,  not  less  than  thirty,  at  such  times,  after  June  thirtieth, 
eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-three,  and  not  less  frecjuently  than  once 
in  every  four  years,  and  the  result  to  be  stated  and  verified  in  such 
form  and  manner  as  the  Postmaster  General  may  direct." 

There  is  another  section  of  the  law  quoted  above,  however,  that 
applies  more  directly  to  the  railway  post  offices,  and  reads  as  follows : 

"Provided,  also:  That  in  case  any  railroad  company  now  fur- 
nishing railway  post  office  cars  shall  refuse  to  provide  such  cars,  such 
company  shall  not  be  entitled  to  any  increase  of  compensation  under 
any  provision  of  this  act ;  Provided,  further :  That  additional  pay  may 
be  allowed  for  every  line  comprising  a  daily  trip  each  way  of  railway 
post  office  cars,  at  a  rate  not  exceeding  twenty-five  dollars  per  mile 
per  annum  for  cars  forty  feet  in  length ;  and  thirty  dollars  per  mile 
per  annum  for  forty-five  feet  cars ;  and  forty  dollars  per  mile  per 
annum  for  fifty  feet  cars;  and  fifty  dollars  per  mile  per  annum 
for  fifty-five  to  sixty  feet  cars;  And  provided,  also:  That  the  length 
of  cars  required  for  such  post  office  railway  car  service  shall  be  deter- 
mined by  the  Post  Office  Department,  all  such  cars  shall  be  properly 
fitted  up,  furnished,  warmed,  and  lighted,  for  the  accommodation  of 
clerks  to  accompany  and  distribute  the  mails." 

It  will  be  seen  by  reading  the  above  extract  from  the  "act  making 
appropriations  for  the  service  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the 
year  ending  June  thirtieth,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-four,"  first: 
That  all  railroad  companies  receive  compensation  for  carrying  the 
mail  according  to  the  weight  of  the  mail  they  carry ;  the  law  fixing  the 
compensation  applies  with  equal  force  to  all  railroad  companies ; 
it  is  not  limited  to  those  companies  providing  railway  post  office 
cars,  but  all  companies  receive,  under  the  law  quoted,  com- 
pensation according  to  the  weight  of  the  mail  they  carry, 
whether  they  carry  it  in  a  baggage  or  a  railway  post  office  car; 
therefore  those  railroads  that  are  not  railway  post  office  lines  would 
receive  the  same  compensation  for  carrying  the  mails,  if  this  service 
were  abolished,  that  they  now  do,  and  if  the  system  of  direct  exchange 
spoken  of  above,  between  office  and  office  on  all  railway  lines,  were 
substituted,  they  would  receive  more,  because  in  that  event  the  pouches 
carried  on  some  of  the  lines  would  exceed  in  weight  the  weight  of  the 
mail  contained  in  them ;  and  without  this  system  of  exchange,  we  have 
shown  that  the  system  advocated  in  the  Morning  Journal  would  dis- 
criminate in  favor  of  the  distributing  post  offices  as  against  all  other 
offices. 


88 

And  in  the  second  place :  That  those  companies  furnishing  rail- 
way post  office  cars  of  the  length  and  finish  required  by  the  Post  Office 
Department  are  entitled  to  additional  pay  of  so  much  per  mile,  per 
annum ;  if  these  cars  were  taken  off  it  would  not  reduce  the  compen- 
sation received  by  the  companies  for  carrying  the  mail ;  on  the  other 
hand  we  have  shown  that  it  would  increase  it,  and  if  this  course  were 
adopted,  it  would  plunge  us  back  into  a  state  of  semi-barbarism,  news 
would  not  be  received  until  after  it  had  become  stale ;  business  men 
could  not  receive  bills  of  goods,  bought  by  them,  as  soon  as  they  would 
receive  the  goods,  and  they  would  have  to  depend  upon  the  telegraph 
for  market  reports,  etc.  ;***** 
and  in  the  third  place,  any  one  who  can  reason  at  all  will 
see  at  a  glance,  that  ten  tons  of  mail  will  weigh  as  much,  if  car- 
ried in  a  divided  state  upon  a  dozen  trains,  as  it  will  if  carried  upon 
one,  two  or  three  trains,  and  any  one  who  has  had  any  experience  in 
handling  mails  knows  that  ten  tons  of  mail,  if  forwarded  a  little  in 
this  pouch  or  sack  and  a  little  in  that  pouch  or  sack,  as  it  would  be, 
if  sent  on  eight  or  ten  trains — will  weigh  more  than  it  would  if  sent 
on  one,  two  or  three  trains,  because  in  that  case  you  have  the  additional 
weight  of  a  number  of  unnecessary  pouches,  locks  and  sacks.  Besides 
this  what  would  be  gained  by  forwarding  from  Boston  and  New  York, 
in  a  divided  state,  this  great  bulk  of  mail  matter  by  every  train  leaving 
those  points  for  the  west,  so  long  as  it  must  all  be  concentrated  upon 
two  or  three  trains  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago  ? 

None  of  our  western  railroads  are  dissatisfied  with  their  compen- 
sation, or  at  least  they  are  willing  to  abide  by  the  law  governing  this 
matter,  and  they  afford  every  facility  required  of  them  by  their  con- 
tracts, and  with  one  exception  these  facilities  are  entirely  adequate  to 
"the  service  required ;"  and  as  to  the  statement  said  to  have  been  made 
by  the  president  of  one  of  the  leading  lines,  "that  he  would  carry  the 
mail  out  of  the  postal  cars  without  any  compensation,"  we  have  to  say, 
that  we  do  not  believe  that  he  will  enter  into  a  contract  with  the  Post 
Office  Department  to  convey  the  mail  "with  due  frequency  and  speed" 
over  his  line  or  lines,  and  to  provide  an  apartment  properly  lighted, 
furnished,  warmed,  etc.,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  route  agent  who 
accompanies  and  distributes  the  mail,  without  any  compensation,  and 
if  he  should  enter  into  such  a  contract  the  directors  of  the  road  would 
call  a  meeting  at  once  and  vote  him  out  of  the  presidency.  Such  talk 
is  put  in  for  effect.  Railroads  are  managed  by  business  men,  and  busi- 
ness men  are  not  in  the  habit  of  cutting  off  their  noses  to  spite  their 
faces. 


89 

Another  statement  made  in  the  same  article  is  as  follows :  "An- 
other very  important  item  to  the  Department  would  be  also  a  saving 
of  expense  in  the  employment  of  postal  car  clerks.  These  employees 
are  paid  nearly  double  the  average  paid  for  the  performance  of  the 
same  service  in  the  office,  and  they  perform  about  half  the  amount  of 
work.  Postal  car  clerks  between  New  York  and  Boston  run  every 
alternate  week,  and  make  one  trip  only  each  day.  They  work  only 
one-half  the  time;  or,  in  other  words,  the  actual  cost  to  the  Depart- 
ment for  doing  the  same  work  is  four  times  what  it  would  be  if  per- 
formed in  the  post  offices,  and  this  certainly  can  only  be  justified  on 
the  ground  of  great  expedition,  which  we  have  shown  above  is  not 
secured  by  the  postal  car  service,"  and  in  another  portion  of  the  same 
article  we  find,  "and  were  the  mails  sent  directly  from  railroad  station 
to  railroad  station  in  the  cities,  more  time  would  be  saved  than  all  that 
is  now  secured  upon  the  postal  car  trains." 

There  are  employed  in  the  Chicago  ofiice,  upon  the  distribution 
of  the  letter  and  paper  mail,  lodged  in  the  office  from  all  sources,  fifty- 
one  clerks,  who  are  paid  in  the  aggregate  $51,000  per  annum,  thus 
making  the  average  pay,  per  clerk,  $1,000  per  annum,  and  they  are 
not  paid  any  too  much  either.  The  average  paid  the  railway  post  office 
clerks  is  $1,245  per  annum,  being  $245  per  clerk,  per  annum,  more 
than  is  paid  to  distributing  clerks  in  distributing  post  offices,  and  the 
reason  why  this  distinction  is  made,  is,  because  the  clerks  running  upon 
trains  are  necessarily  subjected  to  greater  expense  than  those  employed 
in  offices.  They  are  at  home  one  day  and  one  night,  and  then  out  upon 
the  line  the  same  length  of  time;  their  family  expenses  are  just  as  large 
when  they  are  away  from  home,  as  they  are  when  they  are  at  home, 
and  their  own  expenses,  while  out  upon  the  line,  amount  to  not  less 
than  one  dollar  per  day ;  in  addition  to  this  the  strongest  of  the  clerks 
soon  begin  to  feel  the  effects  of  the  constant  jolting  and  jarring  that 
they  have  to  endure  from  the  time  they  enter  the  car  until  they  get 
out  of  it,  and  it  is  not  long  until  the  most  of  them  are  compelled  to  "go 
into  the  shops  for  repairs ;"  besides  this  they  are  not  idle  during  the 
time  they  are  not  on  duty  in  the  cars.  They  employ  this  time  in  ar- 
ranging their  label  slips  for  their  next  runs ;  in  studying  and  correcting 
their  schemes  of  distribution ;  in  posting  themselves  upon  the  railway 
connections,  and  in  passing  examinations  which  determine  their  fitness 
for  the  places  held  by  them.  We  venture  the  remark  that  nothing  of 
this  kind  occurs  in  the  Boston  office,  and  the  further  remark  that  it 
might  benefit  the  public  if  this  plan  were  adopted  in  all  distributing 
post  offices.  The  Chicago  office  is  doing  a  portion  of  this,  and  under 
its  present  management  it  has  improved  most  wonderfully.     The  dis- 


90 

tribution  is  ten  times  better  to-day  than  it  ever  was  before,  and 
there  is  the  most  perfect  harmony  prevaihng  between  this  office  and 
the  railway  post  oftice  service,  and  the  authorities  in  the  office  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  all  that  is  expended  in  perfecting,  and  extending  the 
postal  car  service  is  "justified  on  the  ground  of  great  expedition"  and 
the  fact  that  this  expedition  is  secured  by  this  service  has  been  fully 
demonstrated  above. 

There  are  two  hundred  thousand  letters,  and  from  twenty-five  to 
thirty  tons  of  papers,  transferred  direct  from  incoming  to  outgoing 
trains  in  this  city,  daily ;  none  of  it  is  distributed  in  the  Chicago  office, 
and  there  have  been  times,  when  the  great  mass  of  mail  coming  in  on 
the  Michigan  Southern  R.  R.,  has  been  connected  from  that  road  to 
the  other  roads  departing  from  the  city  when  the  passengers  and  bag- 
gage have  been  left ;  no  longer  ago  than  January  28,  the  incoming  train 
(R.  P.  O.)  on  the  Michigan  Southern  R.  R.  arrived  at  Chicago  thirty- 
seven  minutes  late  (9  :07  a.  m.)  and  yet  the  Galena  R.  P.  O.  connection 
was  made  in  eight  minutes,  the  Chicago  &  St.  Louis  R.  P.  O.  in 
twenty-three  minutes,  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  (about  two 
tons  of  mail)  in  twenty-three  minutes,  the  Chicago  &  Green  Bay  R. 
P.  O.  (two  tons)  in  thirty-three  minutes,  the  Chicago  &  Milwaukee  in 
twenty-three  minutes,  the  Chicago  &  Cedar  Rapids  R.  P.  O.  (about 
six  tons)  in  fifty-three  minutes.  If  this  mail  had  not  been  made  up 
in  the  Buffalo  &  Chicago  R.  P.  O.  none  of  it  could  have  been  con- 
nected, even  had  that  railway  post  office  arrived  on  time ;  and  any  one 
acquainted  with  the  work  in  a  distributing  post  office  ought  to  know 
that  if  the  distribution  were  "performed  regularly  at  the  offices,  and 
lock  bags  sent  to  every  principal  office,  and  not  opened  at  any  interven- 
ing office,"  it  would  result  in  the  delay  shown  in  the  above  illustration, 
and  he  also  ought  to  know  that  the  expense  of  such  a  system  would 
be  much  greater  than  the  present  one. 

It  is  estimated  by  the  Chicago  post  office  authorities,  that,  if  the 
railway  post  office  service  were  abolished,  the  present  post  office  build- 
ing would  not  be  large  enough  to  accommodate  the  distribution  alone, 
and  that  another  building  of  equal  size  would  have  to  be  occupied  in 
order  to  perform  the  work  of  the  office.  The  same  authorities  estimate 
that,  whereas,  they  now  employ  but  fifty-one  clerks  on  the  distribution, 
at  an  expense  of  $51,000,  that  they  would  then  be  compelled  to  employ 
about  208,  at  an  expense  of  about  $204,000  per  annum,  and  this  same 
state  of  things  would  exist  in  all  D.  P.  O.  offices.  Besides  this  other 
distributing  post  offices  would  have  to  be  established ;  other  buildings 
would  have  to  be  erected ;  additional  clerks  would  have  to  be  employed, 
and  still  the  delays  shown  in  the  illustration  would  remain  the  same. 


91 

Another  statement  is  this:  "Still  another  difficulty  with  the  postal 
cars  is  that  the  mails  being  made  up  on  cars  running  between  New 
York  and  Washington  for  postal  cars  running  between  New  York  and 
Boston,  and  vice  versa,  any  failure  to  connect  renders  the  whole  dis- 
tribution of  the  mail  for  the  day  useless,  and  the  mail  arriving  from 
Washington  in  New  York  in  the  morning  too  late  for  the  postal  car 
leaving  for  Boston,  cannot  be  forwarded  on  the  express  train  at  10  :00 
o'clock,  as  it  would  be  if  made  up  for  each  city  on  the  line,  and  for 
the  terminal  cities,  but  it  must  lie  over  the  entire  twelve  hours  in  New 
York,  and  go  on  in  the  postal  car  at  night." 

This  statement  is  certainly  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  author 
of  it,  for  if  there  is  any  one  thing  connected  with  the  railway  post 
office  service,  that  the  clerks  pride  themselves  upon  more  than  another, 
it  is  that  of  understanding  their  connections ;  the  time  of  arrival  of 
trains  at  junctions ;  and  how  they  can  reach  a  certain  line  or  office  by 
so  many  different  routes,  and  in  so  many  dififerent  ways ;  each  head 
clerk  carries  a  list  of  all  night  offices,  and  knows  just  the  time  each 
one  of  them  is  locked  up  and  forwarded,  and  they  use  this  knowledge 
to  good  advantage  whenever  they  are  behind  time,  often  changing 
their  distribution  while  en  route,  in  order  to  make  it  conform  to  their 
time  of  arrival  at  terminal  points ;  by  doing  this  they  prevent  the  thing 
of  which  the  Morning  Journal  complains.  To  illustrate  this  point,  we 
will  state  that  clerks  arriving  at  Chicago  before  3  :30  p.  m.,  make  the 
following  distribution  of  mail  supplied  by  the  Freeport  &  Centralia  R. 
P.  O. :  That  portion  of  the  line  laying  between  Decatur  and  Centralia, 
111.,  is  made  up  in  a  package  and  marked  "Main  Line,  Decatur  South," 
and  is  forwarded  from  Chicago  by  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  express  train  to 
Mendota,  where  it  is  transferred  to  a  connecting  express  train  on  the 
Illinois  Central  R.  R.  (main  line),  and  by  that  train  carried  to  Decatur, 
where  it  is  transferred  to  the  railway  post  office  leaving  Decatur, 
bound  south,  at  2:17  a.  m.  Mail  for  that  portion  of  the  same  line 
laying  between  Bloomington  and  Amboy,  111.,  is  made  up  in  packages, 
by  the  same  clerk,  and  is  marked  "Bloomington  North,"  and  is  for- 
warded from  Chicago  by  express  train  on  Chicago  &  Alton  R.  R., 
arriving  at  Bloomington  in  connection  with  the  Freeport  &  Centralia 
R.  P.  O.,  bound  north ;  at  Bloomington  it  is  transferred  to  this  railway 
post  office,  and  all  offices  laying  between  the  two  points  mentioned 
are  supplied  sooner  than  they  could  be  under  any  other  arrangement. 
Mail  for  that  portion  of  the  same  line  laying  between  Freeport  and 
Amboy,  III,  and  that  portion  between  Bloomington  and  Decatur,  111., 
is  made  up  in  a  package  by  these  same  clerks,  and  is  marked  "Freeport 
South,"  and  is  forwarded  from  Chicago  by  express  train  on  Galena 


92 

R.  R.  to  Freeport,  111.,  where  it  is  transferred  to  the  Freeport  &  Cen- 
tralia  R.  P.  O.,  bound  south. 

If,  however,  these  clerks  are  late  and  fail  to  arrive  at  Chicago 
before  3 :30  p.  m.,  but  arrive  before  7 :30  p.  m.,  they  will 
change  this  distribution  while  en  route,  and  will  mark  the 
"Decatur  South"  package  "Centralia  North"  instead,  and  this 
package  will  be  forwarded  from  Chicago  in  the  Centralia 
pouch,  dispatched  by  the  Illinois  Central  branch  express  train,  and 
will  arrive  at  Centralia  in  time  to  connect  with  the  Freeport  &  Cen- 
tralia R.  P.  O.,  bound  north,  thus  supplying  that  portion  of  the  line 
twelve  to  twenty-four  hours  sooner  than  it  could  be  in  any  other  way. 
If  the  clerks  are  still  late,  and  do  not  arrive  in  Chicago  until  8:35  p. 
m.,  they  will  mass  the  "Decatur  South,"  or  "Centralia  North,"  with 
their  "Freeport  South,"  mark  the  package  "Freeport  South"  and 
forward  it  by  Galena  R.  R.  as  before.  If  they  are  still  late,  they  will 
divide  the  Freeport  &  Centralia  R.  P.  O.  at  Mendota,  marking  one 
package  "Mendota  North,"  and  the  other  "Mendota  South,"  and  for- 
ward them  by  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  R.  R.  at  7  :30  a.  m.  This  train  connects 
with  the  Freeport  &  Centralia  railway  post  offices,  bound  both  north 
and  south,  at  Mendota.  A  clerk  arriving  at  Chicago  in  the  morning 
too  late  to  make  his  regular  connections,  would  go  through  his  mail 
and  make  up  233  night  offices  and  50  express  mails  that  he  would  not 
make  up  if  on  time. 

In  conclusion  we  desire  to  state  that  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
distributing  post  offices  and  the  railway  post  office  service  should  not 
work  together  in  harmony.  They  are  both  engaged  in  the  same  cause, 
that  of  giving  to  the  public,  whose  servants  they  are,  the  best  mail 
facilities  enjoyed  by  any  people  in  the  world.  The  distributing  post 
offices  cannot  accomplish  this  alone,  whereas  the  railway  post  offices 
can,  so  far  as  the  distribution  is  concerned,  (other  than  that  of  the 
letters  absolutely  mailed  in  the  distributing  post  offices,  and  the  dis- 
tribution made  of  such  mail  would  not  be  complicated),  providing  this 
service  is  extended  to  meet  the  demands  made  upon  it.  What  is 
needed  to-day  is  not  the  abolition  of  this  service,  but  a  proper  extension 
of  it,  so  that  mail  matter  passing  from  any  post  office  in  the  land,  to 
any  other  post  office,  will  make  as  quick  a  transit  as  passengers  pass- 
ing over  the  same  route.  This  is  done  now,  or  can  be  done,  wherever 
this  service  has  been  established,  and  no  other  system  can  be  established 
which  will  accomplish  the  same  result. 

The  service  stands  open  for  a  full  and  impartial  investigation  at 
all  times. 


93 

General  Superintendent  Bangs  heard,  the  day  the  Western  Postal 
Record  containing  my  article  was  issued,  that  I  was  preparing  an 
answer  and  telegraphed  me  to  send  him  the  proof.  As  the  article  was 
out  I  could  only  wire  back  that  I  could  not,  and  gave  the  reason ;  he 
then  telegraphed  to  send  him  150  copies  of  the  paper,  which  I  did. 
Afterward  he  told  me  that  he  had  distributed  these  to  members  of 
Congress  and  others  to  whom  he  believed  they  would  be  useful ;  he 
also  said  that  my  surmise  that  the  then  postmaster  at  Boston  was  the 
author  of  the  Journal  article  was  correct,  and  that  he  had  visited 
Washington,  D.  C,  since  and  held  a  long  conference  with  the  Post- 
master General  and  himself,  during  which  he  stated  that  he  had  read 
my  article  and  that  if  the  service  east  was  operated  upon  the  plane  it 
evidently  was  west,  there  would  be  no  reason  for  complaint. 

The  Boston  Morning  Journal  article  appeared  January  16,  1874. 

My  article  appeared  in  the  February,  1874,  issue  of  the  Western 
Postal  Record. 

The  Senate  passed  a  resolution  January  30,  1874,  calling  upon  the 
Postmaster  General  for  information  relative  to  the  postal  service  be- 
tween New  York  and  Washington,  New  York  and  Boston,  and  New 
York,  Albany,  Bufifalo  and  Suspension  Bridge.  He  responded  to  this 
call  in  a  letter  dated  March  4,  1874,  addressed  to  Hon.  M.  H.  Carpen- 
ter, president  pro  tempore  Senate,  as  follows : 

(Senate  Ex.  Doc.  No.  37,  Forty-third  Congress  first  session.) 

POSTAL  SERVICE. 
Letter  from  the  Postmaster  General,  in  answer  to  resolution  of  the 
Senate  of  January  30,  1874,  calling  for  information  relative  to 
the  postal  service  between  New  York  and  Washington,  New  York 
and  Boston,  and  New  York,  Albany,  Bufifalo  and  Suspension 
Bridge. 

Post  Office  Department, 

Washington,  D.  C,  March  4,  1874. 

The  railway  post  office  system  is  the  outgrowth  of  necessity  and 
the  result  of  years  of  study  and  practical  experience  in  this  and  trans- 
atlantic countries.  Before  railroads  were  introduced,  when  post 
offices  were  few,  postage  expensive,  and  transit  slow,  the  mail  for  all 
offices  upon  a  route  was  placed  in  one  pouch,  each  postmaster  assort- 
ing the  whole  contents  and  taking  out  such  part  thereof  as  belonged 
to  his  own  office.  Between  offices  of  importance,  where  the  mail  was 
sufficient,  direct  pouches  were  interchanged,  under  special  lock,  not 


94 

only  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  repeated  assortings,  but  to  guard  against 
loss. 

With  the  growth  of  the  country,  reduction  of  postage,  increased 
speed  in  transit,  and  consequent  increase  of  mails,  it  became  necessary 
to  establish  mail  communication  by  means  of  direct  pouches.  The 
ofifice  at  the  terminus  of  one  or  the  junction  of  several  railroads  would 
receive,  assort,  and  forward  the  mail  for  the  offices  upon  these  rail- 
roads in  a  direct  pouch  to  each,  and  each  office  would  forward  to  these 
"head"  or  "distributing"  offices  their  outgoing  mail  in  the  same  man- 
ner, and,  in  addition,  those  distributing  offices  would  exchange  with 
each  other.  Mail  between  points  where  there  was  no  direct  exchange 
was  sent  to  some  distant  distributing  office,  there  redistributed  and 
forwarded,  and  reached  its  destination  by  a  circuitous  route  and  after 
repeated  delays.  As  offices  increased  in  size  and  number,  these  direct 
pouches  correspondingly  increased. 

It  became  absolutely  necessary  to  provide  some  system  of  mail 
service  that  would  do  away  with  this  multitude  of  pouches,  containing 
in  a  majority  of  cases  a  small  amount  of  mail,  and  passing  in  all 
directions  over  the  country,  under  the  charge  of  no  particular  person, 
or  at  least  of  no  person  wholly  responsible  to  the  Department,  meeting 
on  every  hand  with  neglect,  and  causing  great  delay,  loss  and  con- 
fusion. 

To  accomplish  this  the  route  agent  system  was  adopted. 

Under  this  system  these  "head"  offices  would  send  to  the  route 
agent  all  mail  for  offices  upon  this  particular  route  or  road.  The 
agent  would  assort  the  mail  while  in  transit  and  exchange  with  each 
office  and  the  "head"  or  "distributing"  post  office,  sending 
to  the  latter  all  mail  for  points  not  upon  his  road.  While 
under  this  system  a  perfect  mail  communication  was  established 
between  all  offices  upon  the  line  of  any  one  road,  still  for  points 
beyond  that  line  the  mails  remained  precisely  as  before,  meeting  with 
repeated  delays  at  the  different  distributing  post  offices. 

In  order  that  this  delay  might  be  overcome,  clerks  from  distribut- 
ing post  offices,  familiar  with  the  general  distribution  of  the  mails, 
were  detailed  to  travel  upon  the  cars,  making  the  proper  separation 
and  distribution  for  all  connecting  roads  and  routes,  thus  avoiding  the 
delays  in  "head"  or  "distributing"  post  offices  by  having  the  mails 
ready  for  dispatch  immediately  upon  arrival  at  the  terminus  of  a 
route.  The  experiment  of  detailing  clerks  as  here  stated  was  success- 
ful, and  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  railway  post  office  system. 
By  this  system  all  offices  throughout  the  country  have  an  interchange 


95 

with  each  other  more  frequent  and  effectual  than  if  every  office  in  the 
land  should  make  up  and  forward  a  direct  pouch  to  every  other  office 
for  which  it  might  have  mail.  Virtually  the  railway  post  office  has 
become  a  "traveling  distributing  post  office,"  giving  all  post  offices  its 
benefits,  and,  most  of  all,  saving  and  taking  advantage  of  every  mo- 
ment that  without  it  would  be  lost  in  transit. 

These  traveling  distributing  post  offices,  in  all  cases  where  the 
Department  has  the  choice,  are  placed  upon  trains  making  the  best 
time  and  connections.  It  will  be  noticed,  upon  examination  of  the 
schedule  of  any  railroad  running  frequent  trains,  that  all  of  them  can- 
not be  made  available  for  postal  service,  either  for  the  postal  car  or 
direct  pouch  system.  Many  of  these  trains  start  at  hours  when  there 
is  little  or  no  accumulation  of  mails,  and  they  arrive  at  points  of  des- 
tination at  unseasonable  hours  for  delivery  of  mail  and  too  late  for 
connections  with  points  beyond  and  upon  other  routes.  It  will  also 
be  observed  that  trains  first  leaving  important  points  are  frequently 
the  last  to  arrive  at  the  other  end  of  the  line,  or  else  are  merged  into 
trains  leaving  at  a  late  hour.  It  is,  however,  the  policy  of  this  Depart- 
m.ent  to  avail  itself  of  all  trains  by  which  mails  can  be  hastened  to 
destination,  however  frequent  the  postal  car  or  route  agent  service 
may  be  used  upon  the  same  line ;  and  any  postmaster  failing  to  make 
use  of  all  available  trains  for  the  dispatch  of  mails,  for  points  far  or 
near,  is  deemed  to  be  derelict  in  duty. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

Jno.  a.  J.  CreswelIv, 

Postmaster  General. 
Hon.  M.  H.  Carpenter,  President  pro  tempore 
Senate  United  States. 

The  year  1874  witnessed  the  discontinuance  of  opposition  to  the 
railway  post  office  system,  and  it  moved  forward  with  very  much  less 
friction;  the  number  of  employees  in  the  whole  service  then  was  2,175, 
of  which  850  were  railway  post  office  clerks,  whose  aggregate  annual 
compensation  amounted  to  $1,058,200.  The  remaining  employees, 
1,325,  were  divided  as  follows :  936  route  agents  whose  annual  com- 
pensation aggregated  $896,680;  211  mail  route  messengers,  whose 
annual  compensation  aggregated  $136,540 ;  124  local  agents,  whose 
annual  compensation  aggregated  $94,710;  aggregate  cost,  $2,186,330. 
To  this  must  be  added  $165,478.63,  the  cost  of  54  special  agents 
charged  to  the  railway  mail  service,  and  $600,000  for  car  space,  making 
a  total  of  $2,951,808.63. 


96 

The  cost  of  the  railway  post  office  service  during  that  fiscal  year, 
segregated  from  the  cost  of  the  whole  railway  mail  service  for  the 
same  period,  itemized,  was : 

850  clerks,  average  salary,  $1,245  per  annum    $1,058,250 

Supervision  of  the  service    34,420 

Rent  of  railway  post  office  cars    600,000 

Total    $1,092,670 

Had  the  service  remained  on  the  same  basis  as  before  the  railway 
post  office  was  introduced  the  cost  of  maintaining  it  for  the  fiscal  year 
would  have  been  about  as  follows,  itemized : 

930  route  agents,  average  salary  $958  per  annum $    896,688.00 

506  route  agents,  average  salary  $958  per  annum,  in  lieu 
of  the  850  clerks  who  were  employed  at  an  average 

salary  of  $1,245  per  annum   542,228.00 

54  special  agents,  charged  to  the  railway  mail  service.  .  .  .       105,478.63 
211  mail  route  messengers,  average  annual  salary  about 

$647    136,540.00 

124  local  agents,  average  annual  salary  about  $763....         94,710.00 

Total   $1,835,644.63 

Subtract  this  $1,835,044.03  from  the  cost  of  the  whole  railway 
mail  service  for  that  fiscal  year,  viz.,  $2,951,808.63,  and  we  find  that 
the  improved  method  of  handling  mail,  first  introduced  in  1864,  had 
fought  its  way  up  and  over  an  antiquated  system  and  its  musty  advo- 
cates within  ten  years  thereafter  and  demonstrated  that  it  possessed 
the  fundamental  principles  necessary  to  a  system  capable  of  meeting 
the  needs  of  an  intelligent  and  progressive  business  age  at  an  addi- 
tional cost  of  $1,116,164— $600,000  of  which  was  expended  on  car 
space  alone — a  sum  not  twice  as  large  as  was  subsequently  appro- 
priated for  special  facility  purposes  for  one  fiscal  year. 

The  spirit  of  the  armies  of  the  Union  pervaded  the  force  em- 
ployed in  developing  and  solidifying  these  principles,  therefore,  it  is 
not  strange  that  no  ground  was  ever  lost  that  was  not  regained — that 
the  service  moved  forward  with  a  steady  tramp,  tramp,  until  it  occu- 
pied the  vantage  ground  it  has  held  and  been  strengthening  since  early 
in  1874. 

What  did  this  small  increased  expenditure  save  to  the  business 
public,  the  bankers,  the  financiers,  the  manufacturers,  the  merchants, 
the   buyers   and    sellers — big   and   little — the   employers   and    the   em- 


97 

ployees,  and  the  government?  Who  can  tell?  Who  can  esthnate  the 
intrinsic  value  of  time  when  applied  to  the  earning  power  of  the  vast 
sum  of  money  and  its  equivalent  that  was  dormant,  then,  while  in  tran- 
sit through  the  mail  all  over  the  country  daily?  What  was  the  inter- 
est on  that  sum  worth  per  day,  two  days,  or  three;  what  is  it  worth 
now  per  day  upon  the  vaster  sum,  probably  running  up  close  to,  and  it 
may  be  beyond  one  billion  dollars  ?  Ascertain  the  sum ;  the  time  saved 
can  be  determined  by  comparing  the  old  with  the  new  system,  as  is 
done  in  my  article  of  1874 ;  the  remainder  of  the  problem  is  mathe- 
matical. 

There  were  in  operation  at  that  time  63  lines  of  railway  post 
offices,  covering  16,41-i  track  miles;  39,199  running  miles  daily  and 
14,307,635  running  miles  annually;  number  of  miles  of  railroad  upon 
which  mail  was  carried  was  67,734,  and  the  annual  cost  of  railroad 
mail  transportation  was  $8,589,663. 

In  all  the  territory  embraced  in  the  Fourth  Division  at  that  time 
there  was  but  one  railroad  route  upon  which  twice  daily  full  railway 
post  office  service,  each  way,  had  been  established,  and  that  was  the 
Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern,  between  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  and  Chi- 
cago. One  of  these  departed  from  Buffalo  at  12:25  p.  m.,  and  the 
other  at  1 :00  a.  m. 

The  Wabash  Avenue  church,  which  we  first  occupied  about 
December  20,  1871,  was  destroyed  by  fire  July  14,  1874.  I  was 
not  well  that  day,  in  fact  had  been  ailing  several  days,  and  was 
lying  down  in  the  little  room  just  off  from  my  office,  when  the  fire 
alarm  sounded.  I  inquired  for  the  location  of  the  fire  and  was  in- 
formed that  it  was  raging  in  the  block  bounded  north  by  Taylor,  south 
by  12th  and  west  by  Clark  streets,  and  east  by  4th  avenue.  It  was 
believed  that  it  would  be  confined  to  that  block;  we,  therefore,  did  not 
feel  concerned,  but  when  it  moved  out  of  that  block  and  up  the  east 
side  of  4th  avenue  to  Harrison,  down  this  street  to  State,  north  on 
State  to  a  point  between  Van  Buren  and  Jackson  streets,  we  became 
alarmed,  and  I  arose  and  with  my  office  force  commenced  arranging 
our  belongings  so  that  they  could  be  moved,  if  necessary,  without  de- 
lay whenever  the  route  of  the  fire  could  be  determined  definitely. 

When  it  moved  southeast  from  State  street,  through  Wabash  ave- 
nue to  Michigan  avenue,  and  thence  south  to  Congress  street,  we  knew 
that  our  building  was  doomed,  and  the  post  office  and  our  office  began 
sending  our  effects  to  the  building  on  the  corner  of  Halsted  and  West 
Washington  streets  in  which  the  West  Division  station  was  located. 

In  making  the  transfer  from  one  location  to  the  other  the  post 
office    used    the  wagons  of  the  mail  messenger  almost    exclusively. 


98 

which  was  right,  considering  the  amount  and  vaUie  of  the  records, 
equipment,  and  mail  in  the  office — not  mentioning  the  furniture  that 
had  been  accumulated  during  the  more  than  two  and  a  half  years  of 
our  stay  in  the  church  building. 

This  retarded  our  exodus,  as  we  found  it  necessary  to  attempt 
to  employ  outside  teams  to  help  us  out  of  our  dilemma,  but  nearly  all 
teamsters  declined  to  assist  us  because  they  had  other  engagements  or 
wished  to  get  out  of  range  of  the  fire,  which  by  this  time  was  moving 
west  on  Congress  street,  and  south  down  the  alley  running  between 
Wabash  and  Michigan  avenues,  burning  all  before  it.  We  were  alive 
to  the  importance  of  prompt  and  decisive  action  in  this  crisis  and  I, 
therefore,  decided  to  take  forcible  possession  of  vehicles  that  came 
our  way  unless  the  drivers  accepted  employment  gracefully. 

I  remember  as  vividly  as  if  it  occurred  but  yesterday,  though 
thirty-five  years  have  passed  since  then,  that  I  was  standing  in  the 
opening  to  the  dispatching  and  receiving  room,  up  to  which  the  wagons 
were  backed  to  load  and  unload;  watching  the  approach  of  the  fire  as 
it  moved  on  toward  us,  devouring  building  after  building,  driving 
before  it  or  destroying  everything  that  came  within  its  sweep,  and  the 
confusion  and  turmoil,  raging  in  the  streets  and  alleys,  when  I  saw 
several  carts  and  drays  drawn  by  frantic  horses  move  into  the  open 
space  to  my  right  and  make  a  dash  for  Harrison  street.  As  they 
passed  in  front  of  me  I  made  a  jump  from  where  I  stood  and  landed 
safely  on  a  dray,  grabbed  the  reins  that  were  in  the  hands  of  the  driver 
and  told  him  what  I  wanted,  but  he  refused  to  assist  us  and  showed 
fight ;  had  not  William  C.  Walsh,  the  son  of  the  mail  messenger,  come 
to  my  aid  I  probably  would  have  been  dropped  in  that  maelstrom,  and 
failed  to  capture  the  dray,  but  as  it  was  we  "took  it  into  camp,"  loaded 
it  with  our  effects  and  sent  it  in  charge  of  a  clerk  to  our  place  of 
refuge. 

Working  with  the  energy  that  only  an  unharnessed,  irresistible 
force,  moving  down  upon  one  can  produce,  we  saved  most  of  our 
movables  and  left  the  church  as  the  fire  engulfed  it  and  continued  its 
flight  south  to  Eldridge  court,  and  thence  slightly  southwest  to  the  place 
of  its  origin,  spreading  over  forty-seven  acres  in  all.  In  the  meantime 
requests  were  being  sent  to  the  railway  officials  to  place  the  reserve 
postal  cars  in  positions  accessible  to  the  public ;  the  collectors,  and  the 
mail  messenger,  and  the  clerks  who  were  laying  ofif  were  instructed 
to  report  for  extra  duty  immediately. 

The  experience  of  the  great  fire  of  1871  enabled  the  railway 
mail  service  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  postal  service  growing  out 
of  this  lesser  fire  without  hesitation  or  friction  in  any  quarter,  and 


99 

the  fact  that  none  of  the  depots,  tracks  or  publishing  houses  were  de- 
stroyed simpHfied  the  handUng  of  the  mail  between  depot  and  depot 
and  publishing  houses  and  depots,  and  between  the  temporary  post 
office  and  the  postal  cars,  so  that  while  the  character  of  the  work  per- 
formed in  the  postal  cars  stationed  in  the  city,  in  this  emergency,  was 
the  same  as  in  the  one  that  preceded  it,  it  was  not  spasmodic,  irregular 
or  uncertain ;  there  was  an  officer  of  judgment  and  experience  in 
charge  of  the  postal  service  in  each  depot,  and  my  office  kept  in  touch 
with  them  at  all  hours,  so  that  we  might  anticipate  their  needs,  the 
necessities  of  the  service,  and  provide  for  them  promptly. 

The  building  at  the  corner  of  Halsted  and  West  Washington 
streets  was  not  large  enough  to  accommodate  the  post  office  alone,  and 
could  not  be  made  so,  therefore  a  larger  and  more  centrally  located 
building  was  searched  for  and  found  in  the  Honore  Block,  northwest 
corner  of  Dearborn  and  Adams  streets,  the  site  of  the  present  Mar- 
quette Building,  and  the  Department  leased  two  floors  of  the  north 
end  of  it  and  provided  them  with  fixtures  and  furniture  suitable  for  the 
temporary  use  of  the  post  office  and  our  office.  This  selection  was  in- 
fluenced by  the  fact  that  the  large  Federal  building,  then  in  course  of 
construction,  occupied  the  entire  block  directly  south  of  it,  bounded 
on  the  north  by  Adams  street,  on  the  south  by  Jackson,  on  the  east  by 
Dearborn  and  on  the  west  by  Clark  street.  We  moved  into  Honore 
Building  August  23,  1874,  just  a  month  and  nine  days  after  we  were 
excommunicated  from  the  church  by  fire,  and  resumed  business  under 
more  favorable  conditions.  The  splendidly  qualified  clerks,  who  had 
performed  extra  duty  so  faithfully  and  without  a  murmur,  though 
many  were  separated  from  their  families,  home  comforts,  the  encour- 
aging words  and  tender  smiles  of  their  loved  ones,  and  under  addi- 
tional expense,  were  soon  relieved  and  they  resumed  their  regular 
duties,  their  invaluable  and  indefatigable  labor  being  acknowledged 
with  gratitude. 

The  railway  post  offices  centering  at  Chicago  made  up  the  mails 
they  received  thoroughly,  and  pouched  upon  each  other  all  that  would 
not  be  delayed  thereby,  but  the  packages  made  up  for  night  offices, 
express  mails,  and  lateral  lines,  that  could  be  more  expeditiously  and 
economically  handled  in  that  way,  were  sent  into  the  post  office  to  be 
distributed,  as  packages,  into  the  boxes  which  circled  that  portion  of 
the  "round  table,"  fronting  the  distributer,  in  the  shape  of  a  crescent. 
The  office  made  up  similar  packages  which  were  also  distributed  into 
these  boxes,  thus  one  set  of  pouches  accommodated  both  services. 
These  boxes  could  be  opened  at  the  back  and  hooks  were  so  placed  that 
pouches  or  sacks  could  be  hung  back  of  them,  so  that  when  the  hour 


100 

for  closing  these  mails,  or  any  of  them,  arrived,  they  were  drawn  off 
into  their  respective  pouches,  which  were  then  closed  and  dispatched 
by  the  trains  indicated  by  their  labels. 

This  was  the  most  expeditious  system  possible,  when  the  only 
twice  daily  railway  post  office  in  that  vast  division  was  the  one  running 
on  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  railroad  between  Buffalo,  N. 
Y.,  and  Chicago,  111. ;  in  fact,  it  is  a  system  that  must  exist  as  long  as 
railway  post  offices  do  not  run  upon  all  trains  by  which  mails  to  and 
from  local  offices,  and  those  in  more  distant  territory,  can  be  ma- 
terially advanced  in  delivery ;  but  its  greatest  usefulness  and  most 
soothing  influence  depended  upon  the  skill  and  efficiency  of  the  em- 
ployee who  had  charge  of  the  "round  table."  Unfortunately  the  one 
who  had  charge  at  that  time  was  not  an  expert  and  frequent  com- 
plaints resulted.  Some  of  these  were  investigated,  the  source  of  ir- 
regularities located,  and  then  I  requested  the  postmaster  to  permit  me 
to  place  one  of  my  men  in  charge  of  this  table  until  the  trouble  was 
corrected,  and  one  of  his  employees  drilled  in  schemes  and  connections 
sufficiently  to  become  thoroughly  posted  and  reliable.  My  request  was 
granted  cheerfully,  and  I  detailed  to  this  duty  from  the  Chicago  & 
Burlington  R.  P.  O.,  Lewis  L.  Troy,  who  was  destined,  later  on,  to 
become  one  of  the  most  capable  officers,  in  many  respects,  whose 
names  still  grace  the  roll  of  the  railway  mail  service,  though  he,  and 
others  of  them,  are  at  rest  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father.  Of  him  I  wish 
to  say  a  word. 

Lewis  L.  Troy  participated  in  the  Civil  War ;  he  enlisted  in  the 
9th  Regiment,  Illinois  Infantry,  at  Belleville,  St.  Clair  County,  III., 
and  battled  for  the  perpetuity  of  the  oneness  of  his  adopted  country 
during  all  those  dreadful  years  of  blood  and  sacrifice,  with  that  un- 
yielding courage  which  has  from  time  immemorial  been  characteristic 
of  the  race  from  which  he  sprung,  and  when  he  returned  to  his  home 
at  the  close  of  that  ever-memorable  conflict  he  was  adjutant  of  his 
regiment,  a  fact  that  attested  his  fidelity  and  capacity  as  a  loyal  soldier. 
In  1869  he  was  appointed  a  route  agent  and  ran  between  Galva  and 
Keithsburg,  lU.,  and  in  1871  he  was  transferred  to  the  Chicago  & 
Quincy  R.  P.  O. ;  in  1874  was  detailed  to  my  office  and  assigned,  as 
above,  to  the  "round  table"  in  the  Chicago  post  office ;  later  I  with- 
drew him  from  that  assignment  and  placed  him  in  charge  of  the  desk 
of  the  chief  examiner  and  scheme  builder;  in  1884  he  was  promoted 
to  the  chief  clerkship  of  the  division,  vice  Mr.  Campbell  promoted; 
March  2,  1889,  he  was  appointed  assistant  superintendent  railway  mail 
service,  and  October  5,  1890,  became  superintendent  of  the  Sixth  Di- 
vision, vice  the  undersigned  promoted  to  be  general  superintendent. 


101 

On  the  17th  of  November,  1889,  he  passed  out  of  this  life,  deeply 
mourned  by  a  large  circle  of  personal  friends,  the  employees  of  the 
division,  and  his  associates  and  superior  officers. 

C.  G.  Weirick  had  been  my  chief  examiner  and  scheme  builder 
from  1872  until  Mr.  Troy  succeeded  him ;  the  change  was  a  result  of 
the  creation  of  three  additional  divisions  at  the  close  of  1874 ;  in 
carving  these  out,  the  Third  and  Fourth  Divisions  were  badly  disfig- 
ured ;  out  of  them  came  the  present  Fifth,  also  other  divisions  and 
parts  of  divisions.  Indiana  and  Ohio  were  taken  from  my  division, 
and,  as  Weirick  was  quite  familiar  with  the  service  in  those  states,  he 
went  with  them  as  a  sort  of  "appurtenance  thereunto  belonging."  I 
saw  him  occasionally  afterward;  the  last  time  at  Grafton,  W.  Va.,  as 
I  was  on  the  way  to  Washington  to  confer  with  the  general  superin- 
tendent. While  there  he  became  one  of  the  subjects  of  conversation, 
and  I  spoke  warmly  in  his  behalf.  After  my  return  to  Chicago  I  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  him  dated  at  Washington,  in  which  he  stated  that 
he  was  quite  ill ;  that  Mr.  Bangs  had  told  him  of  the  warmth  of  my 
interest  in  him,  and  thanked  me  earnestly.  A  few  days  afterwards  I 
was  informed  of  his  death  from  pneumonia,  and  that  by  direction  of 
Mr.  Bangs  his  body  had  been  sent  to  his  relatives  in  Council  Bluffs, 
Iowa.  Those  who  had  been  his  associates  in  my  office  and  I,  myself, 
met  the  body  at  the  Illinois  Central  depot  in  Chicago,  and  they  carried 
the  casket  in  which  it  rested  on  their  shoulders,  through  the  city  to  the 
depot  of  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  Railroad,  as  a  mark  of 
personal  regard  and  esteem. 

The  creation  of  the  three  additional  divisions  involved  the  re- 
casting of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  into  eight,  instead  of  five 
parts,  and  changes  in  the  numerical  designations  of  most  of  the  di- 
visions, as  follows : 

The  First  Division  remained  unchanged.  Thomas  P.  Cheney, 
superintendent,  Boston,  Mass. 

The  Second  Division  comprised  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Delaware  and  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland.  Roswell  Hart, 
superintendent,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

The  Third  Division  (new)  was  made  up  of  Maryland  (except 
the  eastern  shore),  Virginia,  West  Virginia  and  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. Milo  V.  Bailey,  superintendent  and  chief  clerk  to  the  general  su- 
perintendent, Washington. 

Maryland  (except  the  eastern  shore),  the  eastern  shore  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  West  Virginia,  were  taken  from  the  Second  Division,  and 
Virginia,  except  the  eastern   shore,  was  taken    from   the  old   Third; 


102 

the  District  of  Columbia  seems  to  have  been  unassigned  up  to  this 
time,  but  it  undoubtedly  was  handled  by  the  superintendents  of  the 
Second  and  old  Third  Divisions,  as  their  lines  covered  it. 

The  Fourth  Division  (new)  comprised  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Louisiana.  L.  M. 
Terrell,  superintendent,  Atlanta,  Ga.  This  whole  division  was  taken 
from  the  old  Third. 

The  Fifth  Division  (new)  comprised  Indiana,  Ohio,  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee.  C.  J.  French,  superintendent,  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  In- 
diana and  Ohio  were  taken  from  the  old  Fourth,  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee from  the  old  Third. 

The  Sixth  Division  (new)  comprised  Illinois,  Iowa,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Nebraska,  Wisconsin,  and  the  territories  of  Dakota,  then 
undivided,  and  Wyoming;  the  through  line  of  the  Union  Pacific  rail- 
way, and  the  United  States  mails  passing  through  Canada — all  of 
which  were  in  the  old  Fourth  Division.  James  E.  White,  superintend- 
ent, Chicago,  111. 

The  Seventh  Division  (new)  comprised  Missouri,  Kansas,  Ar- 
kansas, Texas,  and  the  territories  of  Colorado,  Indian  and  New  Mex- 
ico. Walter  L.  Hunt,  superintendent,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  All  of  these, 
except  Texas,  were  taken  from  the  old  Fourth  Division.  Texas  was 
taken  from  the  old  Third  Division. 

The  Eighth  Division  (new)  comprised  California,  Nevada,  Ore- 
gon, and  the  territories  of  Alaska,  Arizona,  Idaho,  Montana,  Utah, 
and  Washington.  I.  A.  Ammerman,  superintendent,  San  Francisco, 
California. 

This  modification  of  the  divisional  organization  was  necessary, 
not  only  to  insure  a  continuance  of  the  rate  of  improvement  showing 
in  the  distribution  and  dispatch,  but  more  so  to  economize  the  time  of 
the  supervisory  officers,  so  that  they  could  visit  their  Hnes  more  fre- 
quently, observe  their  men  at  work,  ascertain  their  adaptability  for 
the  service  from  all  standpoints — moral,  physical  and  mental — note 
whether  they  were  neat  and  orderly  in  person  and  in  the  management 
of  their  cars ;  quick  of  body  and  mind ;  and  to  encourage  them  with 
words  of  cheer,  advice  and  information,  inspire  higher  efficiency,  and 
thus  multiply  and  strengthen  the  faith  which  thoughtful  men  of  all 
classes  and  pursuits  were  manifesting  in  the  ability  of  the  seryice  to 
make  good  all  that  had  been  promised  for  it. 

That  this  necessity  was  pressing  will  be  understood  when  it  is 
known  that  the  area  of  the  states  assigned  to  the  Fourth,  or  Chicago 


Hon.  Edward  J.  Ryan 

Superintendent  First  Division  R.  M.  S. 
(See  Appendix) 


103 

Division,  aggregated  1,208,532  square  miles ;  that  its  aggregate  popu- 
lation was  15,615,391,  three-eighths  of  the  whole  population  of  the 
United  States  at  that  time,  and  that  the  railroad  mileage  was  35,123. 

The  area  of  the  Third,  or  Chattanooga  Division,  was  at  the  same 
time,  839,435  square  miles ;  the  aggregate  population  11,459,347,  and 
the  railroad  mileage  14,902. 

The  area  of  the  Second,  or  New  York  Division,  was  129,720 
square  miles ;  the  population  10,247,629,  and  the  railroad  mileage 
13,715. 

The  area  of  the  First,  or  Boston  Division,  was  61,973  square 
miles;  the  population  3,612,080,  and  the  railroad  mileage  5,509. 

The  area  of  the  Fifth,  or  San  Francisco  Division,  was  851,870 
square  miles ;  the  population  1,044,072,  and  the  railroad  mileage  2,798. 

The  First  and  Fifth  Divisions  were  not  disturbed  by  this  reor- 
ganization, but  for  different  reasons.  The  First  is  a  very  compact 
body ;  it  comprises  six  states  of  modest  area ;  its  most  remote  boun- 
daries are  of  quick  and  easy  access  from  Boston,  its  headquarters  and 
the  general  offices  of  the  railroad  systems  traversing  the  Division  are 
there  also,  or  close  at  hand.  Its  population  per  square  mile  was  ex- 
ceeded by  the  Second  Division  only,  and  it  has  maintained  that  posi- 
tion steadily ;  but  population,  so  long  as  it  does  not  become  congested 
or  distempered,  offers  no  insurmountable  obstacle  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  best  class  of  service ;  in  fact  a  large  population  centered  in  a 
modest  area  can  be  supplied  with  satisfactory  service  more  econom- 
ically and  with  a  lower  output  of  mental  and  nervous  energy  than  it 
can  be  if  spread  over  a  very  much  larger  territory.  The  population 
of  the  First  Division  then  was  58  per  square  mile;  of  Massachusetts 
alone  189,  and  Rhode  Island  190.  At  present  for  the  whole  Division 
it  is  90;  for  Massachusetts  349,  and  Rhode  Island  343. 

The  impression  has  prevailed  quite  generally  for  a  long  time,  I 
think,  that  New  England  in  point  of  population  has  ceased  t9  grow; 
this  no  doubt  is  due  to  its  very  gradual  increase,  and  the  large  and  almost 
constant  migration  to  the  middle  and  western  states  of  descendants 
of  the  grand  old  Puritan  stock  which  settled  that  section  from  1620  to 
1636,  the  first  of  whom  landed  from  the  Mayflower  on  a  barren  rock, 
where  the  town  of  Plymouth,  Mass.,  now  stands,  December  20,  1620. 
They  are  remembered  in  history,  in  verse  and  song  and  in  the  hearts 
of  the  household  of  every  true  American,  whether  he  has  or  has  not 
running  through  his  veins  the  blood  of  those  God-fearing  and  liberty 
loving  heroes,  the  Pilgrim  Fathers ;  to  them  countless  millions  of  the 
sons  of  man  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  planting  in  that  virgin  soil, 


104 

and  watering  it,  the  seed  from  which  has  grown  and  is  growing,  civil, 
political  and  religious  liberty  throughout  the  world. 

"There  is  no  other  land  like  thee, 

No  dearer  shore ; 
Thou  art  the  shelter  of  the  free ; 
The  home,  the  port  of  Liberty, 
Thou  hast  been  and  shall  ever  be, 

Till  time  is  o'er." 

I  cannot  believe  that  conditions  will  ever  arise  which  will  make  a 
modification  of  the  limits  of  that  division  desirable,  but  with  the  old 
Fifth,  now  the  Eighth,  it  is  different.  At  the  time  of  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  1874,  the  population  per  square  mile  for  that  division  was  but 
1| ;  that  of  California,  which  was  the  most  densely  settled  state  in  the 
division  was  4^ ;  Oregon  and  Utah  were  li  each.  At  present  the 
whole  division  is  about  4  per  square  mile;  California  about  11;  Wash- 
ington, which  has  grown  faster  than  any  other  state  in  the  division, 
about  8 ;  Oregon  about  5,  and  Utah  about  4. 

Whether  it  is  desirable,  from  the  standpoint  of  economy,  super- 
vision, and  the  well-being  of  the  people  residing  and  interested  therein, 
in  one  way  and  another,  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  division, 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  question  in  physical  geography,  rather  than  one 
of  population.  In  former  days  my  official  duties  made  me  somewhat 
familiar  with  the  chorography  of  the  division,  especially  with  the 
northern  portion  of  it,  into  which  two  or  three  of  my  lines  ran ;  and  at 
a  later  period,  acting  in  a  broader  official  capacity,  I  made  quite  a 
thorough  inspection  of  it,  to  familiarize  myself  with  the  mail  facilities 
of  the  division,  especially  with  those  of  Oregon  and  Washington,  the 
citizens  of  which  states  complained  to  the  Post  Office  Department 
that  the  facilities  were  inadequate,  did  not  provide  properly  for  the 
needs  of  their  commerce  at  home  and  abroad,  which  was  then  in  the 
dawn  of  a  thrifty  development,  and  as  a  remedy,  which  appealed  to 
reason  and  local  pride  and,  under  a  larger  growth,  would  have  had 
great  weight,  urged  that  Oregon,  Washington,  Idaho  and  Montana  be 
segregated  from  the  Eighth  Division  and  be  formed  into  an  additional 
division. 

My  observation  and  inquiries  convinced  me  that  neither  the  ex- 
tent of  the  service,  its  deficiencies  in  efifectiveness,  or  the  magnitude 
of  the  early  prospective  growth  of  population,  and  productiveness, 
justified  such  action  at  that  time ;  it  seemed  to  me  that  all  that  was 
lacking  could  be  provided  by  establishing  some  additional  service, 
rearranging  some  of  the  existing  service  and  placing  at  Portland,  Ore., 


105 

an  experienced  and  competent  officer  of  good  judgment,  who  would 
keep  well  informed  as  to  the  needs  of  that  territory,  acting  as  the 
direct  representative  of  the  Department  in  such  cases  as  would  be 
sent  direct  to  him  from  Washington,  and  in  analogous  cases,  bringing 
other  cases  outside  of  his  authorized  independent  jurisdiction 
before  the  division  superintendent  at  San  Francisco,  and  this 
was  the  arrangement  made  finally  and  is  still  m  force,  but 
I  am  glad  to  see  that  General  Superintendent  Grant  has 
recommended  an  additional  division  that  will  embrace  three  of 
these  states  at  least,  and  the  territory  of  Alaska,  and  that  it  has  been 
approved  by  the  Department.  I  hope  it  will  be  authorized  by  Congress 
during  the  present  session. 

At  the  time  of  my  inspection  in  1890  the  population  of  the  whole 
Eighth  Division,  not  counting  Alaska,  which  was  but  36,500,  was  not 
half  as  large  as  that  of  the  First  Division,  whereas,  its  area  in  square 
miles,  not  including  Alaska,  which  is  and  was  577,390,  was  and  is 
more  than  eleven  times  greater,  and  its  farm  lands  in  1900  were  only 
thirteen  per  cent,  of  its  area,  while  that  of  the  First  Division  was  57 
per  cent.  In  1890  the  aggregate  population  of  Idaho,  Oregon  and 
Washington  was  747,542;  at  the  present  time  it  is  about  1,403,000, 
more  than  358,928  in  excess  of  that  of  the  entire  division  in  1874; 
their  aggregate  area  is  249,500  square  miles,  of  which,  according  to  the 
last  census,  33,869  is  farm  land,  being  about  13^  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  area. 

A  large  percentage  of  the  area  embraced  in  the  vast  domain  of 
the  Eighth  Division  is  waste  lands — arid  and  sterile  plains,  parched 
with  the  burning  sun,  void  of  moisture  and  vegetation,  the  graveyards 
of  extinct  volcanoes,  and  perhaps  of  lost  races  of  men  and  lower  ani- 
mals ;  rugged  mountain  ranges,  mineral-bearing  in  most  cases,  covered 
with  forests  and  topped  with  towering  peaks  of  volcanic  origin,  in 
many  instances,  are  found  in  every  state  and  territory  of  the  division. 
Some  of  these  ranges  parallel  each  other,  and  send  out  spurs  which 
interlock  and  pinch  out  vales  and  plains  at  their  extremities,  so  that 
only  narrow  passes  are  found  through  which  traffic  by  rail  and  wagon 
is  possible  between  the  different  sections.  This  makes  intercommuni- 
cation, by  the  usual  agencies,  slow  and  tedious,  and  as  the  routes  of 
travel  are  far  apart,  and  sometimes  tortuous,  that  competition  which 
would  undoubtedly  quicken  the  pace  does  not  exist,  and  is  not  likely 
to  until  the  Pacific  slope  rivals  Switzerland  in  tunnel  building. 

Valleys  of  fertile  lands,  through  which  rivers  of  clear  water  flow, 
producing  fruits,  flowers,  grain  and  vegetation  in  great  variety  and 
abundance,  lie  at  the  base  of  the  foothills  of  these  ranges  and  between 


106 

the  spurs  that  are  offshoots  from  them.  Some  of  these  valleys  are 
beautiful;  those  like  the  Sacramento,  San  Joaquin,  Willamette,  Kla- 
math, Umpqua  and  Rogue  River  are  not  only  garden  spots,  but  also 
the  delightful  homes  of  a  large  number  of  intelligent  and  prosperous 
people.  Other  valleys  there  are  in  Idaho,  Oregon  and  Washington, 
surrounded  by  the  same  settings  and  equally  as  beautiful  and  prolific, 
that  have  not  bloomed  because  nature  has  not  moistened  them  with  her 
tears,  nor  man  watered  them  with  labor  and  skill,  but  when  those 
states  become  more  densely  populated,  and  men  begin  to  jostle  each 
other,  and  the  more  easy  and  less  expensive  lands  to  cultivate  are 
settled  to  their  full  capacity,  and  the  supply  of  their  products  begins 
to  fail  to  meet  the  demand  for  them,  these  slumbering  places  will  be 
awakened  to  their  mission,  by  the  civil  engineers  and  the  husband- 
m.en's  art  and  energy,  and  will  bring  forth  bountiful  harvests  wherewith 
to  feed  and  clothe,  to  shelter  and  educate  their  dependents.  Who  that 
has  studied  the  census  and  development  of  our  own  land  from  the 
Revolution  to  this  time  can  fail  to  see  in  its  growth  from  three  to 
eighty-eight  millions,  a  future  in  which  all  these  lands  will  be  called  upon 
to  maintain  additional  teeming  millions?  When  that  time  does  come, 
no  nation  will  outrank  our  own  in  transportation  facilities  or  means 
of  rapid  transit,  be  they  upon,  above,  or  under  the  earth;  but  until 
then  let  there  be  drawn  together  in  a  more  compact  organization,  for 
economy  and  celerity  in  the  conduct  of  their  postal  affairs,  upon  which 
celerity  in  the  transaction  of  other  business  depends,  those  states 
having  the  same  geological  formation,  similar  interests,  and  bound 
together  and  circumscribed  in  their  outside  intercourse  by  the  same 
geographical  barriers. 

I  have  said  that  we  moved  into  the  Honore  Building  August  23, 
1874.  We  remained  there  until  January  4,  1879,  when  we  became 
homeless  once  more  by  fire.  I  was  absent  from  the  ofifice,  when  the 
fire  was  discovered,  making  a  call  at  the  general  offices  of  the  Chicago, 
Rock  Island  &  Pacific  railway,  and  knew  nothing  of  it  until  I  rounded 
the  southeast  corner  of  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel,  where  Jackson 
crosses  Clark  street,  when  I  saw  clouds  of  smoke  ascending  from  the 
Honore  Building;  then  I  rushed  north  on  Clark  street  to  Adams, 
thence  east  to  the  Adams  street  entrance  to  the  second  floor  of  the 
post  office,  in  the  northeast  corner  of  which  our  office  was  located, 
facing  Dearborn  street  on  the  east  and  an  alley  on  the  north.  My 
machinery  was  working  perfectly  and  I  passed  up  the  stairs  along  the 
hall,  running  through  the  second  story  from  north  to  south,  and  en- 
tered our  rooms  under  full  headway  and  found  Messrs.  Campbell, 
Troy,  Montgomery,  Skeels,  H.  B.  Armstrong  and  others  lowering  the 


107 

records  and  furniture  through  the  open  windows  into  wagons  stationed 
in  the  alley  to  receive  them.  I  joined  in  the  work,  and  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible arranged  to  have  railway  post  offices  placed  in  position  to  receive 
and  distribute  the  mails  as  was  done  immediately  after  each  previous 
fire.  The  clerks  were  called  in  from  their  layoffs  and,  as  always,  re- 
sponded promptly  and  efficiently.  I  quote  the  following  from  the 
Chicago  papers  to  show  the  action  taken  by  our  service : 

"The  Railway  Mail  Slrvice. 

"All  the  mail  matter  which  was  sent  to  the  Rock  Island  depot  for 
Saturday  night  has  been  sent  to  its  destination  without  loss  of  time 
or  delay.  Captain  White,  of  the  United  States  Railway  Mail  Service, 
is  responsible  for  this  happy  state  of  affairs,  which  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  under  the  circumstances.  All  of  the  matter  that  had  accu- 
mulated at  the  post  office  on  Saturday  was  at  once  transferred  to  the 
postal  cars,  where  it  was  distributed  by  the  clerks  and  sent  to  its  des- 
tination. All  the  mail  was  handled  in  this  manner  for  several  days. 
A  reporter  who  visited  the  depot  yesterday  found  nothing  but  news- 
paper bags  on  the  floor,  with  a  few  clerks  and  local  agent  Hubbard  in 
charge.  These  gentlemen  claimed  that  by  distributing  the  mails  on 
the  cars  they  can  be  as  quickly  and  advantageously  sent  to  their  desti- 
nation as  if  it  were  done  in  the  best  post  office  building  in  the  regular 
course  of  work.  This  method  of  distribution  always  worked  to  a 
charm.  Captain  White's  behavior  during  the  progress  of  the  fire  is 
highly  praised  by  all  who  saw  him.  *  *  *  *  Gentlemen 
who  came  in  contact  with  him  during  the  exciting  moments  of  Satur- 
day speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  his  cool  and  remarkable  behavior 
under  the  trying  circumstances.  Yesterday  he  was  busy  visiting  the 
different  depots,  and  could  not  be  found." 

"TiiK  Railway  Mail  Service. 

"The  value  to  the  country  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service  was  never 
better  illustrated  than  by  the  fire  Saturday.  The  hesitancy  of  Con- 
gress to  make  an  appropriation  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  present 
half  year  happily  terminated  in  the  proper  way,  and  the  system  was  not 
discontinued  January  1,  as  it  necessarily  would  have  been  had  the  ap- 
propriation been  disallowed.  But  for  this  system  of  distribution  in 
transit,  all  mails  would  come  into  the  general  office  unassorted  for 
division.  Had  this  been  the  rule,  owing  to  the  delays  in  mails  by  the 
snow  storms,  the  Chicago  office  would  have  been  clogged  with  hun- 
dreds of  sacks  of  mail  matter  Saturday,  most  of  which  would,  of  ne- 


108 

cessity,  have  been  destroyed.     As  it  was,  not  a  letter  was  lost  or  in- 
jured, and  it  is  doubtful  if  even  a  paper  went  astray. 

"For  the  information  of  the  public,  Captain  White,  Superintendent 
of  this  service,  has  issued  the  following  circular: 

"Railway  Mail  Service. 
"Office  Superintendent,  Sixth  Division, 

Chicago,  January  6,  1879. 

"For  the  purpose  of  distributing  mails  during  the  present  embar- 
rassment under  which  the  local  post  office  labors,  employees  of  this 
service  are  stationed  in  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  postal  car  No. 
57,  under  Madison  street  bridge,  upon  which  can  be  mailed  until  8  p.  m. 
each  day  all  letters  for  Wisconsin,  Minnesota.  Dakota  and  the  upper 
peninsula  of  Michigan. 

"Upon  Illinois  Central  postal  car.  No.  38,  at  foot  of  Randolph 
street,  can  be  mailed,  until  8  p.  m.,  all  letters  for  offices  supplied  by 
the  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  and  Michigan  Central  lines. 

"The  public  should  remember  that  there  is  night  postal  service  upon 
the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy,  Illinois  Central,  Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific,  Chicago  and  Iowa  Division,  Chicago  &  Northwestern, 
Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne  &  Chicago,  and  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  South- 
ern Railroads,  and  that  all  letters  for  offices  supplied  by  these  lines  can 
be  mailed  at  the  cars  up  to  the  time  of  leaving.  The  Pittsburg,  Fort 
Wayne  &  Chicago  postal  car  leaves  at  9  p.  m.  daily,  except  Saturday, 
when  it  leaves  at  5  :15  p.  m.  The  other  postal  cars  leave  upon  the  reg- 
ular night  and  day  trains. 

"Respectfully, 

"(Signed)     James  E.  White, 

Superintendent." 

The  post  office  and  our  office  moved  to  the  basement  of  the  Singer 
Building,  comer  State  and  Washington  streets,  while  the  Honore 
Building  was  burning.  Fortunately  the  fire  department  confined  the 
fire  practically  to  the  building  in  which  it  originated ;  the  streets  were 
not  crowded  with  frantic  men^  women  and  children,  fleeing  Jehus 
driving  furiously,  thieves,  blacklegs  and  scoundrels ;  so  our  effects 
were  nearly  all  saved  and  no  one  was  injured.  But  the  mixture  in 
the  basement  of  the  Singer  Building  was  not  systematic  that  night, 
but  it  did  not  take  long  to  arrange  it  so  that  some  of  the  work  could 
be  resumed  in  a  day  or  two  and  shortly  the  office  was  in  as  good  work- 
ing order  as  it  could  be  placed  in  such  cramped  quarters.     On  the  12th 


109 

of  April  the  post  office  moved  to  the  basement  of  the  uncompleted 
Government  Building,  and  the  railway  mail  service,  after  remaining 
in  the  Singer  Building  a  few  days  longer,  moved  into  a  store  fronting 
Washington  street,  where  Field  Annex  now  stands. 

The  following  year,  1880,  we  moved  into  "Economy  Block," 
Dearborn  street  front,  now  known  as  "The  Fair"  and  to  the  Federal 
Building  in  1881,  which  occupied  the  ground  upon  which  the  present 
one  stands.  That  building  was  the  home  of  the  post  office  as  well  as 
of  our  service  until  April,  189G ;  during  that  month  both  offices  took 
up  their  quarters  in  a  temporary  post  office  building  erected  on  the 
lake  front,  which  was  better  adapted  to  the  uses  made  of  it,  I  beUeve, 
than  any  other  assigned  or  provided  for  the  two  offices  during  my  con- 
nection with  the  service. 

The  building  now  occupied  cost  $4,000,000,  and  was  completed  and 
■taken  possession  of  on  October  28,  1905. 

APPLICATION   OF  THE   POWERS  OF  MAN. 

In  the  early  days  I  had  many  experiences  which  taught  me — 
though  ambitious  for  territory — that  efficient  supervision  over  large 
spheres  of  action  in  a  land  of  "magnificent  distances,"  like  the  great 
west,  could  only  be  secured  through  prodigal  expenditure  of  time, 
and  mental,  nervous  and  muscular  power  and  activity.  The  more  un- 
limited the  sphere  the  greater  the  expenditure  of  energy  or  the  lower 
the  efficiency  of  supervision.  The  time  consumed  in  journeying  from 
point  to  point  then  was  more  than  twice  as  great  as  it  is  now,  which, 
considered  from  a  practical  standpoint,  was  equivalent  to  enlarging 
the  field  of  supervision  in  the  same  ratio,  as  the  time  for  actual  inspec- 
tion and  investigation  was  decreased  proportionately  thereby. 

The  conservation  and  application  of  the  powers  of  man — spiritual 
and  physical — in  the  different  fields  of  mechanical  science  is  necessary 
to  the  discovery  of  certain  principles  and  truths  in  the  line  of  civil 
and  mechanical  engineering,  in  mining,  and  in  making  waste  places 
productive.  It  made  possible  the  powerful  engines  of  to-day,  and  the 
high  speed  reached  and  maintained  for  long  distances,  with  great 
loads  and  up  high  grades  as  well  as  over  level  plains.  These  monster 
machines  are  one  of  the  products  of  high  mechanical  engineering,  but 
they  could  not  have  attained  their  present  usefulness  without  the 
scientific  skill  of  the  civil  engineers,  who  surveyed  and  directed  the 
construction  of  the  road  beds,  culverts,  trestles,  bridges  and  tunnels, 
selected  rails  of  suitable  weight  and  applied  scientific  principles  in 
laying  them,  especially  on  sharp  curves,  so  as  to  prevent  the  rails 
spreading  and  the  trains  being  derailed,  or  the  engines  jumping  the 


110 

tracks  as  they  rounded  curves  at  high  speed,  striking  the  inside  rail  at 
acute  angles,  and  veering  over  with  their  great  weight  and  momentum 
against  the  outside  rail,  striking  it  a  terrific  blow  at  another  angle. 

High  speed  in  such  cases,  as  we  all  know  from  experience,  endan- 
gers the  safety  of  all  on  board,  and  if  no  lives  are  lost  or  limbs  broken, 
the  railway  post  office  clerks  and  the  employees  of  the  railway  and  ex- 
press companies  are  very  liable  to  be  injured  by  being  thrown  against 
their  racks  and  cases,  trunks  and  packages  or  the  walls  of  their  car 
and  to  receive  grievous  bruises  and  cuts.  The  best  engineers,  those 
who  through  long  experience  in  handling  the  same  engine  upon  the 
same  road,  have  come  to  know  the  topography  of  one  and  the  eccen- 
tricities of  the  other,  and  having  lost  that  recklessness  which  seems  to 
be  inseparable  from  the  early  career  of  everyone  who  enters  upon  a 
hazardous  calling,  but  which  passes  from  them  after  they  have  drunk 
of  the  cup  of  pain  and  remorse  brewed  by  their  own  hands  for  them- 
selves and  others,  now  pilot  their  trains  with  such  judgment  that  they 
move  around  the  curve  as  gracefully  as  swans  swim  among  groups  of 
islands. 

The  mining  engineer  has  become  a  very  important  factor  in  rail- 
road operations,  since  the  country  is  so  largely  denuded  of  forests 
that  what  remains  must  not  only  be  conserved,  but  be  added  to  by 
planting  and  cultivation  to  meet  the  demands  for  other  purposes  than 
fuel  and  car  and  building  construction.  Fortunately  he  finds  buried 
in  the  earth  better  materials  for  all  these  purposes  than  grow  upon  it. 
Coal  (anthracite  and  bituminous),  iron  from  which  steel  is  made, 
copper,  lead,  etc.,  etc.,  are  found  in  large  beds,  or  pockets,  from  Maine 
to  the  state  of  Washington  and  in  Alaska,  probably  in  sufficient  quan- 
tities to  last  until  some  substitute  is  found — electricity  perhaps. 

I  remember  very  well  that  but  little  coal  was  used  on  the  old 
Chicago,  Iowa  &  Nebraska  railroad  when  I  ran  over  it,  notwithstand- 
ing Iowa  had  but  a  small  per  cent,  of  timber  land.  This  was  because 
train  service  was  light,  and  coal  largely  undiscovered. 

The  track  was  built  by  laying  the  ties  on  the  rich,  black  muck  and 
placing  light  rails  on  top  of  them ;  "fish  plates"  were  not  used,  con- 
sequently the  joints  were  broken  and  as  the  era  of  ballasting  had  not 
arrived,  in  the  west  at  least,  when  trains  moved  over  low  places  and 
through  cuts  after  heavy  rains  the  track  would  sag,  first  on  one  side, 
then  on  the  other,  and  travel  was  not  a  delight  to  passengers  who  were 
unaccustomed  to 

"A  life  on  the  ocean  wave! 
A  home  on  the  rolling  deep." 


Ill 

During  my  first  year  on  this  line  our  trains  were  hauled  by  three 
of  the  old  style  Baldwin  or  Rogers  locomotive  engines — the  Fox  River, 
Mercury  and  Titus ;  they  were  light  weight,  but  heavy  enough  for  the 
business  assigned  them ;  the  Fox  River  was  the  lightest,  and  not  as 
good  a  steam  generator  as  the  other  two,  both  of  which  made  plenty  to 
keep  up  with  the  schedule  and  an  excess  to  blow  over  the  foot  path 
along  the  side  of  the  track;  the  Titus,  when  not  dead,  was  the  cham- 
pion in  that  line. 

There  was  a  bend  in  the  Iowa  River  between  Oxford  (now  Mon- 
tour) and  Tama  City^  near  which  an  Indian  reservation  was  located; 
opposite  this  bend  was  a  corresponding  curve  in  the  track.  One  day 
the  Fox  River,  while  on  her  way  toward  the  Mississippi  River,  hold- 
ing her  umbrella  smokestack  proudly  in  the  air  and  the  engineer's 
good  right  hand  resting  on  the  lever,  it  is  supposed  that  he  became 
absorbed  in  the  splendor  of  the  landscape  before  him  and  forgot  the 
danger  in  front  and  allowed  the  crafty  creature  he  was  driving  to 
strike  the  angles  of  the  curve  at  high  speed  and  she  plunged  into  the 
placid  waters  that  were  flowing  below.  This  demonstrated  the  danger 
of  moving  at  high  speed  around  curves. 

My  opposite,  Mr.  G.  S.  Eddy,  said  to  me  once  that  he  did  not 
enjoy  being  derailed ;  that  no  matter  how  soft  the  ditch  in  which  his 
car  landed  he  always  found  it  hard,  and  that  if  he  had  anything  to  do 
with  managing  that  part  of  the  road  over  which  we  ran  he  would 
anchor  the  engine  and  trains  to  the  track  and  move  the  whole  thing 
on  skids,  but  I  never  thought  he  was  serious — rather  that  he  was  jocu- 
lar— until  as  I  was  running  east  one  day,  I  found  him  in  the  ditch  just 
outside  of  Blairstown,  standing  in  the  doorway  of  his  apartment, 
facing  us  and  trying  to  keep  from  sliding  down  to  the  other  side  of 
the  car;  he  was  not  hurt — he  never  was.  This  was  the  fifth  time  he 
had  been  in  that  enchanting  position  since  I  had  been  on  the  line, 
while  I  had  escaped  entirely,  and  I  could  not  help  crying  out  that  I 
thought  it  would  be  more  soul  satisfying  to  stay  in  the  ditch  and  have 
his  meals  and  clean  clothes  brought  to  him  regularly,  and  his  family 
occasionally,  than  to  live  that  sort  of  abnormal  life.  These  few  words 
of  consolation  and  advice  seemed  to  grieve  him  and  he  shouted  back 
that  he  hoped  I  would  be  the  next  one  to  go  oflf  the  track.  I  said  I 
would  be  glad  to  share  anything  with  him,  but  that  it  would  not  be  right 
for  me  to  attempt  to  rob  him  of  any  part  of  the  reputation  he  had  ac- 
quired as  an  acrobat  under  such  distressing  circumstances. 

This  accident  detained  the  train  I  was  on  about  two  and  a  half 
hours,  so  when  we  received  orders  to  move  the  train  got  under  full 
headway   as   soon   as   possible.      Ambitious   engineers,    in   those   days, 


113 

seemed  to  consider  that  skill  in  their  vocation,  intrepidity  and  proper 
interest  in  the  success  of  their  employers  demanded  that  all  time  lost, 
no  matter  how,  must  be  made  up  before  passing  the  first  switch  in  the 
direction  running,  so  when  the  order  was  received  a  shrill  shriek  rent 
the  air,  the  throttle  of  the  engine  was  thrown  wide  open,  the  piston 
rods  glided  backward  and  forward  without  friction,  the  wheels  rotated 
faster  and  faster  and  the  Fox  River  opened  a  hole  in  the  air  as  she 
sprinted  over  the  twenty-four  miles  separating  Blairstown  and  Cedar 
Rapids,  where  east-bound  passengers  ate  their  supper  and  west-bound 
their  breakfast.  On  this  occasion  the  time  for  supper  was  limited ; 
the  train  soon  pulled  out  for  Clinton — eighty-one  miles  away — stop- 
ping at  Bertram  for  wood  and  water  as  usual,  then  passing  Mount 
Vernon  in  dense  darkness  and  on  toward  Lisbon ;  as  we  approached 
this  station  the  headlight  revealed  to  the  engineer  a  crossing  and  three 
cows  lying  on  it ;  the  whistle  sounded  a  quick,  sharp  warning  and  the 
next  moment  the  cows  were  thrown  up  against  the  bank  of  a  cut  and 
rolled  back  under  the  trucks  of  my  car,  which  rose  to  the  occasion, 
and  landed  in  the  ditch,  where  it  rested  partly  on  its  roof  and  partly  on 
one  side.  I  was  inside  lying  in  the  angle  thus  created,  partly  stunned ; 
the  letters  were  thrown  from  the  cases ;  the  papers  from  the  boxes ; 
the  fire  from  the  stove  and  they  formed  a  hot  blend  around  me,  but  I 
was  on  my  feet  in  a  moment,  trying  to  stamp  out  the  fire.  Soon  I 
heard  the  conductor  calling  my  name  and  I  answered  but  was  not 
heard ;  the  calls  and  answers  were  repeated  with  the  same  result,  then 
the  conductor  climbed  upon  the  exposed  side  of  the  car,  opened  the  door 
and  called  again.  I  explained  the  situation  and  requested  that  water 
be  handed  down  as  fast  as  possible  that  I  might  extinguish  the  fire; 
this  was  done  and  the  fire  did  but  little  damage^,  but  we  remained  where 
the  accident  occurred  until  the  next  day  and  then  moved  on  to  Clinton; 
leaving  the  car,  in  which  the  mail  apartment  was  located,  behind.  I 
escaped  with  bruises  only,  which  was  gratifying. 

That  route  extended  from  Clinton  to  Boone,  Iowa ;  it  has  long 
been  part  of  the  great  Chicago  &  Nortwestern  system,  being  a  portion 
of  the  main  line  extending  from  Chicago  via  Clinton,  Cedar  Rapids, 
and  Boone  to  Council  Blufifs,  and  Omaha,  Nebraska — a  system  em- 
bracing now  about  ten  thousand  miles  of  railroad — which  has  become 
under  the  long  and  able  management  of  Marvin  Hughitt,  who  entered 
upon  his  railway  career  in  a  subordinate  position  early  in  life,  and  rose 
by  sheer  force  of  character,  intellectual  capacity  and  energy,  from  one 
position  to  another,  until  long  since  he  became  the  distinguished  head 
of  the  whole  system,  which  is  one  of  the  best  built  and  equipped  rail- 
roads, in  all   respects,   in  this   country.     He  is   an  able,   unassuming 


113 

gentleman  of  positive  convictions  and  determination.  While  I  was 
stationed  in  Chicago  he  did  many  kind  acts,  at  my  request,  of  which 
our  clerks  were  beneficiaries. 

The  rise  of  the  great  operatives ;  the  advanced  methods  of  man- 
agement and  construction;  the  wonderful  improvements  in  every  fea- 
ture of  manufacture,  commerce  and  transportation  that  have  occurred 
all  along  this  and  other  lines  of  business,  can  be  traced  by  the  same 
gradual  growth  of  the  human  mind  in  the  white  flame  of  practical  ex- 
perience, and  persistent  delving  into  specialties,  that  has  marked  the 
growth  of  our  splendidly  efficient  railway  mail  service,  and  moulded 
it  into  what  it  is,  for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

I  cannot  call  to  mind,  in  active  service  now,  any  who  were  promi- 
nent in  the  administration  of  large  railroad  properties  prior  to  my 
entry  into  the  railway  mail  service ;  those  whose  names  I  can  recall 
are  all,  or  nearly  all,  I  hope  and  believe,  at  rest  in  this  life,  or  in  the 
one  beyond,  for  though  some  of  them  were  not  sugar  coated  on  the 
outside,  I  do  not  remember  any  whose  manhood  was  not  broad,  sympa- 
thetic, and  responsive  to  the  clear  ringing  notes  of  distress  or  who  did 
not  extend  their  uplifting  influence  in  behalf  of  the  worthy,  capable, 
young  men  struggling  for  advancement.  Those  qualities  shine  brighter 
in  the  judgment  of  the  men  of  gray  matter,  made  in  the  likeness  of  the 
Creator,  than  the  polish  of  all  the  drones,  fops,  and  pleasure-seeking 
do-nothings  of  the  world. 

I  recall  the  names  of  many  of  these,  their  faces  and  forms,  and 
some  of  their  characteristics.  Hugh  Riddle,  Robert  Harris,  Frank 
Thompson,  P.  A.  Hall,  S.  S.  Merrell,  W.  H.  Holcomb,  Thomas  J. 
Potter,  John  Newell  and  many  others. 

There  grew  up  under  these  and  others,  who  may  properly  be 
called  pioneer  railway  managers,  a  younger  class  of  men  who  com- 
menced at  the  bottom  also ;  some  as  section  bosses,  some  in  the  shops, 
some  as  station  agents,  train  dispatchers,  yard  men,  some  in  charge  of 
gravel-trains,  and  in  the  offices ;  they  had  the  benefit  of  the  experiences 
of  these  pioneers  and  were  pushed  on  by  the  demands  and  necessities 
of  an  ever-increasing  population,  production,  competition,  invention, 
and  ambition ;  the  fittest  always  surviving,  and  stepping  into  the  vacant 
high  places,  until  now  there  is  a  body  of  men  in  middle  life,  some  be- 
yond, who  are  the  stars  in  the  operating  firmament  of  the  railroad 
world  to-day — they  are  familiar  with  the  railway  post  office  service, 
for  they  grew  as  it  grew,  provided  it  with  improved  cars  as  fast  as 
new  methods,  material  and  inventions  were  discovered,  which  would 
strengthen  their  construction ;  improved  their  tracks  as  fast  as  in- 
creased speed  was  demanded ;  augmented  the   force  of  their  motive 


114 

power,  and  have  clone  many  helpful  things  not  "nominated  in  the 
hond  ;"  have  become  deeply  interested  in  its  success,  not  wholly  for 
pecuniary  remuneration,  as  most  know,  but  because  they  have  helped 
nurse  it  and  want  their  patrons,  neighbors,  employees,  and  all,  in  any 
respect  dependent  upon  them,  to  have  as  good  accommodations  as  any 
one  else  has. 

These  men  have  always  been  friends  of  the  railway  mail  service. 
Among  them  may  be  mentioned  Roswell  Miller,  W.  C.  Brown,  W.  H. 
Newman,  E.  P.  Ripley,  George  B.  Harris,  A.  J.  Earling,  F.  D.  Under- 
wood, William  Truesdale,  Edward  Dickinson,  John  M.  Whiteman, 
William  A.  Gardner,  &c.,  &c. 

I  do  not  know  what  improvements  will  be  made  in  the  work  of 
the  clerks  of  the  future;  no  doubt  time  in  transit  will  be 
reduced ;  tracks  made  more  f  rictionless ;  retirements  on  pay 
at  a  prescribed  age,  and  under  certain  conditions  earlier; 
provisions  to  remunerate  them  for  the  additional  expense 
incurred  when  absent  from  their  homes  on  official  duty ;  their 
salaries  to  be  increased  until  they  become  fairly  remunerative;  consid- 
ering the  high  grade  work  they  perform ;  and  the  increased  cost  of 
living ;  the  hazard  they  are  in  when  on  duty ;  the  time  allowed  for  re- 
creation and  rest  which  they  must  surrender  to  those  studies  which 
keep  them  fit  for  first-class  service  all  the  time  and  for  emergency  duty, 
resulting  from  snow  blockades,  destruction  of  bridges  and  tracks, 
floods,  landslides,  fires,  wrecks  and  such  other  contingencies  as  substi- 
tutes may  not  be  available  for,  and  which  must  therefore  be  taken 
care  of  by  the  regular  force  without  additional  compensation. 

It  may  be  asked.  Upon  what  do  you  base  such  an  optimistic  pre- 
diction? I  answer  upon  the  experiences  and  successes  of  the  past,  and 
the  inherent  and  everlasting  sense  of  justice  that  pervades  this  people, 
and  acts  authoritatively  whenever  the  conscience  is  aroused.  I  think 
the  past  shows  that  those  most  directly  interested  financially ;  their 
ofBcers  and  friends ;  the  record  of  the  achievements,  endurance,  fidelity 
and  rectitude  of  the  rank  and  file  may  be  depended  upon  to  arouse  the 
public  conscience  and  to  keep  it  alive  and  alert  until  the  object  sought 
is  accomplished,  without  trespassing  upon  the  authority  of  the  execu- 
tive arm  of  the  Government,  elective  or  appointive.  This  must  be  sup- 
plemented by  patience,  for  patience  is  needed  many  times,  especially 
when  the  excuse  is  made  that  all  you  have  estimated  for  cannot  be 
allowed  because  a  large  deficiency  in  the  revenues  of  the  Department 
exists,  and  then  discover  that  a  comparatively  new  service,  to  be  exact, 
twelve  years  old,  that  could  not  perform  one  satisfactory  function,  if 
railroad  transportation  of  mails,  and  railway  post  office  distribution  of 


115 

the  same,  were  not  sufificiently  extensive  and  equipped  to  insure  cor- 
rect and  complete  distribution,  and  prompt  and  regular  delivery  at  the 
head  ofhce  of  the  rural  delivery  routes,  rarely,  if  ever,  fails  to  be 
allowed  the  full  sum  of  its  estimate. 

During  the  brief  existence  of  the  rural  delivery  its  expenditures 
have  mounted  up  from  $14,840  per  annum  in  1897  to  $36,950,139  for 
the  fiscal  year  1909.  If  this  rate  of  increase  continues  for  another 
twelve  years,  a  new  schedule  of  taxation  will  be  in  order,  the  con- 
struction of  battleships,  those  safeguards  of  the  nation,  be  discontinued, 
and  those  not  independent,  do  as  a  St.  Paul  gentleman,  who  was  re- 
cently caught  in  a  snow  blockade  between  stations  without  food,  told 
a  friend  he  did,  "went  to  bed  without  anything  on  his  stomach  but  his 
hand." 

The  expenditure  for  railroad  and  steamboat  mail  transportation 
seems  to  have  been  recorded  first  in  the  year  1837 ;  for  that  year  it 
amounted  to  $307,444.  Since  1846  the  cost  of  railroad  transportation 
of  mail  has  been  kept  separate,  and  for  that  year  was  $587,769 ;  for 
1876,  the  brief  season  of  the  first  fast  mail,  it  was  $9,543,135;  for  1886 
it  was  $15,520,191 ;  for  1890  it  was  $20,869,231 ;  for  1900  it  was  $33,- 
424,982;  for  1903  it  was  $36,607,524;  for  1908  it  was  $44,722,985.  and 
for  1909  it  was  $44,885,395.29. 

These  figures  are  of  record,  therefore  historically  correct,  and 
show  that  the  principal  aid  of  the  Government  in  supplying  its  citizens 
of  all  classes  and  conditions  with  mail,  and  without  which  all  attempts 
to  provide  the  semblance  of  a  satisfactory  service  would  be  fruitless, 
because  its  great  auxiliary,  the  railway  mail  service,  could  not  exist, 
had  been  transporting  ton  after  ton,  car  after  car^  and  train  after  train 
of  mail  matter  over  thousands,  tens  of  thousands  and  millions  of  miles 
in  the  best  vehicles  that  could  be  constructed,  at  the  highest  speed  and 
greatest  frequency,  sixty-six  years  before  their  annual  remuneration 
reached  the  munificent  sum  expended  in  a  single  year  upon  a  twelve- 
year-old  child  of  the  Department. 

The  first  annual  expenditure  for  all  the  employees  of  the  railway 
mail  service  dates  from  the  fiscal  year  1842,  and  is  recorded  as  $22,987. 
The  expenditures  increased  gradually  from  that  fiscal  year  to  this ; 
in  1865,  the  fiscal  year  the  railway  post  office  service  was  introduced, 
to  $342,071.96;  in  1890  it  was  $5,818,665.00;  in  1907  it  was  $15,248,- 
601.55,  and  for  the  present  fiscal  year,  1909,  it  is  $18,352,674.70. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  a  service  that  has  been  in  operation  sixty- 
six  years  at  least  in  a  crude  and  dependent  way  at  first,  but  which  began 
to  move  into  a  higher  sphere  of  usefulness  twenty-two  years  later 
through  the  introduction  of  new  methods  and  blood  has  become  the 


116 

best  service  of  its  kind  mentioned  in  the  literature  and  history  of  the 
world,  and  at  little  more  than  half  the  cost  per  annum  of  the  rural 
delivery,  which  is  but  thirteen  years  old. 

If  the  service  did  not  exist  and  the  railroad  transportation  con- 
tinued, there  would  be  a  restoration  of  the  distributing  post  offices 
with  the  attendant  delays  in  the  delivery  of  the  mails,  augmented  by 
those  of  rural  delivery,  or  if  the  first  dropped  out,  the  stage  coach  era 
would  return,  and  yet  the  magnificent  railway  service,  the  blood  of 
whose  employees  has  been  poured  out  freely  while  in  the  discharge  of 
their  duties,  and  who  have  sealed  their  devotion  to  their  calling  with 
their  lives,  maimed  bodies  and  wrecked  health,  is  denied  an  appropria- 
tion for  a  specific  purpose,  which  many  of  the  most  able  and  ex- 
perienced men,  in  and  out  of  Congress,  declare  to  be  meritorious  in 
the  extreme,  on  the  ground  that  a  deficiency  in  the  revenues  of  the 
Department  exists,  and  that,  too,  in  face  of  the  fact  that,  within  twelve 
years  after  its  birth,  the  favored  service  has  been  allowed  an  annual  ap- 
propriation exceeding  that  granted  for  the  railway  mail  service  em- 
ployees and  officers  $16,564,000,  and  for  the  employees,  officers  and 
car  space  paid  for,  combined — by  $11,764,000.  In  view  of  the  above 
statements,  which  can  be  verified  by  reference  to  annual  reports,  I 
think  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  that  patience  is  in  order. 

THE  FAST  MAIL. 

The  late  George  S.  Bangs,  then  superintendent  of  the  railway 
niail  service,  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  introducing  the  first  set  of  fast 
mail  trains  to  the  public.  This  occurred  in  1875,  on  the  main  lines 
of  the  New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  and  the  Lake  Shore  & 
Michigan  Southern  railroad  companies,  between  New  York  City,  N. 
Y.,  and  Chicago,  111. 

It  is  true  that  when  Mr.  George  B.  Armstrong  was  chief  of  the 
service — with  headquarters  in  Washington,  April  4,  1869-May  3,  1871 
— he  presented  this  subject  to,  and  conferred  and  corresponded,  re- 
specting its  establishment  on  the  above  mentioned  routes,  with  Mr. 
William  H.  Vanderbilt,  eldest  son  of  "Commodore"  Vanderbilt,  who 
was  vice-president  of  the  New  York  &  Hudson  River  Railroad  Com- 
pany in  1865,  and  when  the  New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  com- 
panies were  consolidated  and  created  into  a  corporation  in  1869,  he 
was  made  its  first  vice-president  and  "de  facto"  executive  officer,  and 
was  also  vice-president  of  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  Rail- 
way Company  and  of  the  Michigan  Central  Railroad. 

These  advances  were  well  received  by  Mr.  Vanderbilt,  and  al- 
though immediate  results  did  not  follow,  they  enabled  the  originator 


117 

of  the  railway  post  office  to  present  his  conception  and  suitable  sug- 
gestions concerning  its  establishment  clearly  to  the  mind  of  the  execu- 
tive head  of  that  great  chain  of  railway  lines,  for  consideration  and 
action,  when  more  favorable  conditions  prevailed.  Undoubtedly  this, 
like  other  problems  which  he  worked  out  thoroughly  in  his  own  mind 
before  attempting  to  put  them  into  practical  operation,  he  discussed 
with  Mr.  Bangs  and  other  confidential  friends.  At  the  time  the  fast 
mail  was  receiving  his  closest  attention,  Mr.  Bangs,  upon  his  pressing 
request,  had  become  his  successor  at  Chicago,  and  was  recognized  there 
as  his  chief  lieutenant.  On  May  3,  1871,  Mr.  Armstrong  retired  from 
the  service  and  two  days  later  died,  leaving  much  of  the  work  mapped 
out  in  his  fertile  mind  undeveloped,  but  he  had  laid  the  foundation, 
built  some  of  the  superstructure  and  left  behind  him  a  corps  of  young 
men  who,  with  others  who  came  in  later,  have  brought  it  up  to  its 
present  stage  of  development. 

Mr.  Bangs,  who  very  properly  succeeded  Mr.  Armstrong  as  su- 
perintendent of  the  whole  service,  took  up  the  work  where  his  friend 
and  sponsor  had  laid  it  down,  revived  the  fast  mail  project,  re-opened 
negotiations  with  William  H.  Vanderbilt  and  officers  of  other  available 
lines,  which  finally  culminated  in  the  establishment  of  that  special 
service  on  the  routes  mentioned  in  the  first  paragraph  of  this  article. 

The  first  train  departed  from  New  York  City  at  4:15  a.  m.,  Sep- 
tember 16,  1875,  and  ran  via  Albany,  Syracuse,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  Cleve- 
land, Toledo,  Ohio,  and  Elkhart,  Ind.,  and  arrived  at  Chicago  at  6  :55 
a.  m.  the  next  day ;  the  first  east-bound  train  departed  from  Chicago 
at  8  :30  p.  m.,  and  running  by  the  same  route,  arrived  at  New  York 
City  at  3  :00  a.  m.  the  second  day,  thirty  hours  and  forty  minutes ;  it 
ran  thus  daily  in  both  directions  until  July  22,  1876,  fifty-five  days 
less  than  one  year,  when  it  was  withdrawn  by  the  companies  interested, 
because  their  reasonable  expectation  that  the  extraordinary  service 
they  were  rendering  would  be  recognized  by  the  Government  making 
provision  for  a  corresponding  increase  in  compensation  was  not  real- 
ized. This  expectation  became  hopeless,  when  Congress  on  July  12, 
1876,  passed  a  bill,  which  among  other  commands,  directed  the  Post- 
master General  to  reduce  the  compensation,  fixed  by  law,  for  the 
transportation  of  the  mails  by  railroads — not  land-grant  roads — ten 
per  cent. 

That  the  expectations  of  the  companies  rested  on  equity,  no  one 
with  the  capacity  to  understand  the  magnitude  of  the  undertaking, 
could  doubt  for  a  moment.  The  expense  involved  comprehended  the 
building  of  a  sufficient  number  of  railway  post  office  cars,  on  plans 
and  specifications  drawn  to  meet  the  needs  of  an  exacting  and  haz- 


118 

ardoiis  service,  to  equip  five  trains  drawn  by  powerful  engines  for  those 
days,  the  complement  necessary  to  maintain  daily  service  both  ways, 
and  to  meet  possible  emergencies — to  provide  additional  train  crews, 
safety  appliances,  guards,  caretakers,  and  when  all  were  ready  for  the 
start  to  invest  these  trains  with  the  "right  of  way"  over  all  others  on 
the  line  and  to  keep  them  in  repair. 

When  this  is  known  the  conviction  that  the  expectation  was  equit- 
able must  grow  stronger  in  the  minds  of  those  capable  of  comparing 
the  extent,  quality  and  cost  of  the  service,  and  the  magnitude  of  the 
mail  carried  by  any  one  line  prior  to  the  fiscal  year  1875,  with  that  of 
the  fiscal  year  1876. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  calendar  year,  1875,  trains  made  up  wholly 
or  in  part  of  postal  cars  ran  daily  between  New  York  and  Chicago. 
One,  the  fast  mail,  composed  of  an  engine  and  four  full  postal  cars, 
properly  equipped  with  expert  railway  postal  clerks,  a  chief  head  clerk, 
caretaker,  etc.,  departed  from  New  York  City  at  4:15  p.  m.,  and  run- 
ning by  the  routes  and  junctions  heretofore  mentioned,  arrived  at 
Chicago  at  6  :55  a.  m.  the  next  day.  The  second  was  a  regular  passen- 
ger train  composed  of  an  engine,  postal,  baggage,  express,  sleeping 
cars  and  passenger  coaches,  and  departing  from  New  York  City,  made 
slow  running  time  to  Chicago. 

The  fast  mail  was  well  organized  and  equipped,  many  competent 
clerks  were  detailed  to  it  from  lines  in  the  Second,  Fifth  and  Sixth 
Divisions,  the  divisions  through  which  the  lines  composing  the  route 
by  which  the  fast  mail  ran,  and  which  was  afterwards  known  as  thei 
New  York  &  Chicago  R.  P.  O.  Up  to  the  time  the  fast  mail  was  in- 
troduced, that  portion  of  this  route  laying  between  New  York  and  Buf- 
falo was  assigned  to  the  Second  Division,  and  that  part  between 
Bufifalo  and  Chicago  to  the  Sixth  Division,  as  did  all  the  territory 
afterwards  assigned  to  the  Ninth  Division  when  it  was  created. 

Mr.  William  B.  Thompson,  afterwards  General  Superintendent 
Railway  Mail  Service,  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  fast  mail 
from  its  beginning,  at  which  time  he  was  a  special  agent,  assigned 
as  above.  Mr.  Thompson  served  within  my  jurisdiction  nearly  four 
years  and  the  compliment  was  reciprocated  by  serving  under  him  about 
six  years.  It  afifords  me  pleasure  to  testify  to  his  industry,  faithful- 
ness, "sticking  qualities,"  and  courtesy  as  a  subordinate  and  superior 
officer.  The  original  fast  mail,  as  has  been  stated,  was  operated  but  a 
brief  period,  but  during  that  time  it  improved  in  distribution,  and  the 
excellent  clerks  employed  in  discipline,  esprit  de  corps  and  efficiency ; 
nevertheless  it  was  not  a  fast  mail  in  the  sense  implied,  at  any  time 
during  its  existence.     It  was  held  in  the  yards  of  the  New  York  Cen- 


119 

tral,  in  New  York  City,  seven  hours,  after  it  should  have  been  sched- 
uled out,  for  the  New  York  dailies  and  the  News  Company  packages. 
I  have  it  on  good  authority  that  the  average  daily  weight  it  carried 
from  New  York  City  was  about  twenty  tons ;  it  is  a  matter  of  record 
that  the  mail  out  on  the  first  run  consisted  of  forty-seven  pouches  of 
letters,  6G3  sacks  of  papers,  a  very  large  number  of  News  Company 
packages,  and  183  registered  packages,  and  that  the  great  bulk  of  the 
dailies  were  delivered  between  New  York  City  and  BufTalo.  The  New 
York  Times  had  9000  copies  of  that  day's  issue  on  the  train  and  only 
1800  were  carried  west  of  Bufifalo ;  other  dailies  sent  out  large  quan- 
tities— presumably  with  the  same  result. 

This  train  was  slowed  down  several  times  before  arriving  at 
Cleveland,  to  keep  within  the  schedule ;  the  time  made  between  New 
York  City  and  Toledo,  Ohio,  averaged  forty-one  miles  per  hour,  and 
between  Toledo  and  Chicago  but  thirty  and  one-half  miles;  thus  it  is 
shown  that  if  this  train  had  departed  from  New  York  City  at  9:15  p. 
m.,  the  hour  that  would  have  benefited  the  largest  number  of  people, 
and  expedited  the  most  important  and  best  paying  mail,  and  maintained 
the  same  speed  through  to  Chicago,  that  it  did  to  Toledo,  it  would  have 
arrived  at  9  :55  p.  m.,  the  night  before  the  morning  of  its  actual  arrival, 
and  connection  would  have  been  assured  with  the  night  trains  on  the 
trunk  lines  radiating  from  Chicago  to  the  west,  southwest,  north  and 
northwest  and  south,  supplying  a  very  large  number  of  post  offices 
from  six  to  twelve  and  twenty-four  hours  earlier  than  they  were  with 
the  first  fast  mail  system  and  none  later. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  system  of  distribution  adapted 
for  the  fast  mail  was  especially  adapted  to  the  requirements  of  a  p.  m. 
arrival  at  Chicago,  at  a  time  when  night  railway  post  offices  were  the 
exception,  not  the  rule;  when  the  making  of  express  mails,  night 
offices,  and  side  lines  were  indicated  in  order  that  the  mail  might  be 
dispatched  to  destination  via  express  trains  in  baggage  cars,  in  charge 
of  baggagemen  and  with  the  least  delay  possible. 

Making  up  the  mail  for  night  connection  in  those  days,  when  the 
schedule  by  which  the  train  was  run  provided  for  a  morning  connec- 
tion, was  a  very  extravagant  proceeding.  As  has  been  said  this  fast 
mail  was  discontinued  on  July  22,  187G,  and  the  old  service  was  re- 
sumed. At  the  end  of  that  time  No.  21,  known  as  the  "Western  Ex- 
press," made  up  of  regular  passenger  train  equipment,  including  postal 
cars,  was  scheduled  to  leave  New  York  City  at  6  :00  p.  m.,  Cleveland, 
3  :00  p.  m.  next  day ;  Toledo,  6  :00  p.  m.,  and  to  arrive  at  Chicago  at 
6  :00  a.  m.  the  following  day,  occupying  thirty-six  hours  between  ter- 
mini.   Later,  a  train,  called  a  fast  mail  train,  left  New  York  at  8:50  p. 


120 

in.  and  arrived  at  Toledo,  Ohio,  at  4  :57  p.  m.  the  next  day,  the  mail 
for  Chicago  and  the  west  being  dispatched  thence  by  express  train 
arriving  at  Chicago  at  either  5:40  or  8:10  a.  m.  the  following  day; 
time  en  route  either  thirty-three  or  thirty-five  hours,  speed  per  hour 
about  twenty-eight  or  thirty  miles ;  if  we  consider  this  run  as  between 
New  York  City  and  Toledo  only,  the  speed  was  about  thirty-seven 
miles  per  hour. 

In  1888  General  Superintendent  Thompson,  with  the  hearty  co- 
operation of  Postmaster  General  Howe,  devoted  his  best  energies  to- 
ward securing  an  extension  of  this  train  with  a  shortening  of  time  to 
Chicago  and  the  establishment  of  a  connecting  fast  mail  to  Omaha, 
over  one  of  these  competing  lines,  viz.,  Chicago  &  Northwestern, 
Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific,  and  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy 
railroads.  It  was  understood  that  the  Michigan  Southern  railroad 
had  agreed  to  put  the  New  York  and  Toledo  fast  mail  through  to  Chi- 
cago by  midnight,  if  a  fast  mail  to  Omaha  could  be  secured,  but  all 
the  above  lines  declined  to  accept  the  most  favorable  proposals  within 
the  power  of  the  Post  Office  Department.  Postmaster  General  Howe 
then  dispatched  Mr.  Thompson  and  myself  to  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  to 
confer  with  Messrs.  Clark  and  Kimball  of  the  Union  Pacific  system, 
whose  headquarters  were  at  Omaha,  but  who  were  then  at  Kansas 
City  attending  a  meeting  of  railway  lines  respecting  a  reduction  of  their 
schedule  sufficient  to  save  twelve  hours  between  Omaha  and  San  Fran- 
cisco. The  conference  was  held  and  our  work  was  progressing  favor- 
ably until  Mr.  Kimball  inquired  whether  the  sum  offered  for  the 
special  service,  if  granted,  would  be  paid  in  cash  or  be  credited  on  the 
company's  indebtedness  to  the  Government.  Mr.  Thompson  said  that 
he  could  not  answer  that  question  but  would  telegraph  to  the  Post- 
master General  for  a  decision ;  the  Postmaster  General  referred  it  to 
the  Attorney  General,  who  decided  that  it  must  be  credited  on  the 
company's  indebtedness  to  the  Government,  thereupon  the  officers  of 
the  company  declined  to  accept  the  proposal  of  the  Government,  but 
later  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific,  of  their  own  motion,  reduced  their 
time  twelve  hours,  so  that  the  Department  received  the  accommodation 
it  sought  without  cost. 

The  Postmaster  General  and  the  General  Superintendent,  assisted 
by  Mr.  John  Newall  of  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  Rail- 
road, worked  persistently  and  vigorously  to  secure  favorable  consider- 
ation for  the  proposition  made  the  three  competing  lines,  from  the 
president  and  general  manager  of  one  of  them,  but  without  results, 
until  some  time  after  the  death  of  Postmaster  General  Howe  and  the 
appointment  of  General  Gresham  as  his  successor. 


Hon.  E.  L.  West 

Superintendent  Sixth  Division    R.  M.  8. 
(See  Appendix) 


V 


121 

CHICAGO  &  COUNCIL  BLUFFS  AND  CHICAGO  &  ST.  PAUL 

FAST  MAILS. 

There  then  came  a  time  when  the  pool  that  had  existed  between 
these  roads  was  broken  temporarily,  and  those  who  had  continued  the 
negotiations  for  a  fast  mail  on  the  part  of  the  Department,  found  this 
opening,  rushed  in  vigorously  and  were  conceded  a  meeting  in  a  room 
of  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  on  March  10,  1884.  The  Post  Office  De- 
partment was  represented  in  this  meeting  by  General  Walter  Q. 
Gresham,  Postmaster  General ;  Frank  Hatton,  First  Assistant  Post- 
master General ;  William  B.  Thompson,  General  Superintendent ;  and 
James  E.  White,  Superintendent  Sixth  Division ;  the  Chicago,  Burling- 
ton &  Quincy  railway  by  Charles  E.  Perkins,  president ;  Thomas  J. 
Potter,  general  manager,  and  others. 

The  conference  continued  well  into  the  afternoon,  when  an  agree- 
ment was  entered  into  which  provided  that  the  company  furnish  the 
Government  a  special  fast  mail  train  to  start  from  Chicago  at  3  :00  a. 
m.,  six  times  per  week  and  run  over  its  lines  via  Mendota  and  Gales- 
burg,  111.,  Burlington,  Mount  Pleasant,  Ottumwa,  Pacific  Junction, 
and  Council  Blufifs  to  Union  Pacific  Transfer,  Iowa,  where  it  should 
arrive  at  7  :00  p.  m.  the  same  day.  After  the  agreement  was  ready  for 
signature  the  Postmaster  General  turned  to  Mr.  Potter  and  asked  him 
when  he  would  be  ready  to  start  the  fast  mail.  Mr.  Potter  replied, 
"To-morrow  morning.  General ;"  then  he  turned  to  me  and  said,  "When 
can  you  be  ready.  Captain?"  I  answered,  "To-morrow  morning,  Mr. 
Pastmaster  General,"  and  we  moved  out  of  the  Union  Depot  promptly, 
March  11,  1884,  at  3:00  a.  m.,  and  the  fast  mail  arrived  at  Union  Paci- 
fic Transfer,  Iowa,  at  7  :00  p.  m.,  the  same  day,  on  time. 

General  Manager  Potter's  car  was  attached  to  the  train,  and  the 
Postmaster  General  and  party,  and  Mr.  Potter  and  party  visited  Bur- 
lington, Iowa,  the  home  of  Mr.  Charles  E.  Perkins,  president  of  the 
C.  B.  &  Q.  R.  R.,  with  whom  they  breakfasted,  and  later  in  the  day 
General  Gresham  and  others  of  the  party  who  had  served  as  soldiers 
during  the  Civil  War  did  themselves  the  honor  to  pay  their  respects 
to  Colonel  J.  C.  Abercrombie  of  the  11th  Iowa  Infantry,  who  lived  in 
Burlington,  and  had  become  totally  blind  on  account  of  his  war  ser- 
vices. Colonel  Abercrombie's  regiment  was  associated  with  the  13th 
Regiment,  in  which  I  served,  and  the  15th  and  IGth  Regiments,  Iowa 
Infantry,  which  formed  the  3rd  or  "Crocker's  Iowa  Brigade"  of  the 
4th  Division  of  the  17th  Corps.  General  Gresham  had  command  of 
this  division  when  it  was  moving  into  position  in  front  of  Atlanta, 
Ga.,   the   evening   of   July    20,    1864,    and    was    carried    ofif   the    field 


122 

wounded.  1  was  wounded  the  next  day  while  leading  my  company 
from  that  position  in  a  charge  which  the  3rd  Brigade  was  ordered  to 
make  on  the  works  of  the  enemy^  which  crowned  a  hill  from  which 
our  front  and  left  was  being  enfiladed  very  disastrously. 

The  Colonel  was  very  much  pleased  with  the  call ;  he  had  grown 
gray,  was  more  slender  and  had  that  appearance  of  dignity  and  re- 
finement, coupled  with  a  sadness  of  expression,  the  result,  no  doubt, 
of  his  experience  in  the  army  and  his  misfortune. 

In  due  time  the  General  Manager's  car,  with  the  party  it  brought 
from  Chicago  in  the  morning,  started  on  the  return  trip,  and  arrived 
in  that  city  early  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day.  En  route  a  stop  was 
made  at  Galesburg,  111.,  where  the  Postmaster  General  received  a 
telegram  from  General  Manager  Miller  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  railway,  asking  when  and  where  he  could  confer  with  him 
respecting  the  establishment  of  fast  mail  service  on  that  line  between 
Chicago  and  St.  Paul.  The  Postmaster  General  appointed  that  eve- 
ning at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel.  The  conference  was  held  and  an 
agreement  entered  into  to  run  a  special  mail  train  daily,  except  Sunday, 
for  one  year  from  March  13,  1884,  leaving  Chicago  at  3  :00  a.  m.,  run- 
ning via  Milwaukee  and  La  Crosse,  Wis.,  arriving  at  St.  Paul  at  3  :30  p. 
m.,  and  at  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  at  4  p.  m.,  etc.  This  agreement  was 
subject  to  the  approval  of  Mr.  Alex.  Mitchell,  president  of  the  com- 
pany, whose  headquarters  were  in  Milwaukee,  so  on  the  morning  of  the 
12th,  General  Manager  Miller  took  the  Postmaster  General  and  party 
in  his  special  car  to  that  city  and  the  negotiations  were  explained  to 
Mr.  Mitchell,  who,  after  asking  a  few  questions,  approved  and  signed 
the  agreement.  The  Postmaster  General,  as  in  the  case  of  the  C.  B. 
&  Q.  R.  R.,  then  asked  General  Manager  Miller  when  he  could  com- 
mence the  service ;  and  was  told  the  next  day,  and  he  then  asked  me 
when  we  could  be  ready  and  I  answered,  "To-morrow,  Mr.  Postmaster 
General,"  and  it  was  started  the  morning  of  the  13th  of  March,  1884, 
and  has  been  in  successful  operation  ever  since. 

The  contracts  of  this  company  and  the  Chicago,  Burlington  & 
Quincy  were  renewed  twice,  making  the  aggregate  period  under  con- 
tract nine  years  each  and  as  they  have  continued  and  improved  this 
special  service  to  this  day  they  have  demonstrated  that  they  are  stead- 
fast and  enterprising  servants  of  the  Post  Office  Department  and  of 
the  public  and  their  own  patrons.  At  the  time  these  contracts  were 
entered  into  an  agreement  was  made  with  the  Illinois  Central  Com- 
pany whereby  it  agreed  to  change  the  schedule  of  its  main  line.  Free- 
port  to  Centralia,  111.,  so  that  one  train  would  run  south  and  the  other 
north,  from  Mendota,  111.,  at  about  5  a.  m.,  on  the  arrival  of  the  Chicago, 


123 

Burlington  &  Council  Bluffs  fast  mail ;  this  arrangement  increased  the 
value  of  the  service  through  the  central  portion  of  the  state,  and 
reached  more  distant  sections  by  trains — mail  and  express — crossing 
it  to  the  east  and  west. 

TRANSCONTINENTAL  FAST  MAIL. 

The  special  service  remained  very  much  in  this  condition  in  the 
west  until  November,  1889,  when  special  fast  mail  service  was  estab- 
lished between  Omaha,  Neb.,  and  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  and  Portland, 
Ore.  I  had  talked  with  the  Union  Pacific  people  from  time  to  time 
about  this  service  after  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Council  Bluffs  fast 
mail  had  been  introduced,  but  could  not  observe  that  much  impression 
was  being  made  until  1889.  One  day  in  September  of  that  year,  I  was 
returning  from  a  western  trip  and  dropped  off  the  train  at  Omaha,  to 
pay  my  respects  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Holcomb,  vice-president,  and  Mr.  E. 
Dickinson,  general  manager,  of  the  Union  Pacific  railway  and  allied 
lines.  I  again  brought  up  the  fast  mail  service  from  Union  Pacific 
Transfer,  Iowa,  to  Ogden,  Utah,  including  in  the  same  conversation 
the  Oregon  Short  Line,  which  was  under  the  same  management,  and 
the  success  of  which  would  make  a  greater  success  of  the  main  line. 
The  Oregon  Short  Line  breaks  from  the  main  stem  at  Granger,  Wyo. ; 
its  trains,  however,  were  made  up  at  Green  River,  Wyo.,  thirty  miles 
east  on  the  Union  Pacific,  and  moved  up  to  Granger,  passed  through 
its  gates  out  over  the  low  land  lying  between  it  and  Pocatello,  Idaho, 
and  on,  in  a  northerly  direction,  via  Nampa,  Idaho,  Huntington,  Baker 
City,  Pendleton,  Umatilla  and  thence  due  east  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
beautiful  Columbia  River,  past  The  Dalles,  under  the  shadow  of  Mt. 
Hood,  into  the  active  city  of  Portland,  Oregon — 945  miles  from  Gran- 
ger, Wyoming. 

The  conversation  grew  very  interesting,  and  as  we  proceeded  I 
became  aware  that  Mr.  Holcomb  was  not  simply  passing  the  "time  o' 
day"  with  me,  but  was  in  "dead  earnest,"  and  wanted  to  feel  well 
assured  that  he  was  doing  what  would  advance  the  best  interests  of  his 
company;  finally  he  asked  me  if  I  had  drawn  up  an  agreement.  I  said, 
"No,  sir;"  then  he  took  me  to  a  room,  introduced  a  stenographer  to 
me  and  said,  I  might  dictate  an  agreement,  have  it  typewritten  and 
bring  it  to  him ;  if  it  proved  satisfactory  he  would  sign  it,  and  I  said 
I  would  also,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Postmaster  General.  We 
both  signed,  and  I  took  the  train  that  would  deliver  me  first  at  Wash- 
ington, passed  my  home  without  stopping,  and  as  soon  as  I  arrived  in 
the  Department  called  upon  General  Superintendent  Bell  and  explained 
the  object  of  my  visit.     In  a  short  time  we  called  at  the  Postmaster 


124 

General's  rooms,  I  paid  my  respects  and  the  story  I  had  come  to  tell 
was  repeated.  I  had  not  extended  my  trip  west  into  California  and  in 
answer  to  a  question  said  I  had  not  conferred  with  the  Central  Pacific 
management.  The  question  was  asked,  why?  I  answered,  the  Central 
Pacific  and  all  the  states  it  traverses  are  assigned  to  another  division, 
therefore,  I  had  no  right  to  visit  San  Francisco  and  open  negotiations 
without  authority,  and  it  seemed  best  to  fasten  a  spike  as  far  as  we 
had  gone,  rather  than  to  risk  all  on  the  delay  such  action  might  involve, 
where  one  party  was  disinclined  to  consent  to  a  quicker  schedule. 

I  returned  to  Omaha,  closed  the  arrangement  with  the  Union  Pa- 
cific and  the  Oregon  Short  Line  satisfactorily,  and  said  I  would  go  on 
to  San  Francisco  at  once  to  negotiate  with  the  Central  Pacific  people 
for  the  quickening  of  the  schedule  of  the  train  that  could  connect  best 
with  the  Union  Pacific  fast  mail  at  Ogden,  thus  establishing  a  fast 
mail  without  a  break  from  New  York  and  Boston  to  San  Francisco 
and  Portland,  but  remarked  that  I  was  acquainted  with  but  one  of 
their  general  officers,  and  that  one  fortunately  was  Mr.  Towne.  There- 
upon Mr.  Holcomb  said  he  would  tell  Mr.  Dickinson  to  take  his  car 
and  go  with  me,  which  he  did. 

On  our  arrival  at  San  Francisco  I  made  an  appointment  with 
Vice-President  Towne  for  the  next  day.  We  called  at  the  office  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  Company  rather  early  and  visited  Mr.  J.  W.  Fill- 
more, the  manager,  first,  and  found  a  large,  genial  looking  gentleman, 
who,  during  our  conversation,  expressed  a  favorable  opinion  of  the 
"special  mail  service,"  and  hoped  I  would  be  successful  in  the  interview 
about  to  take  place.  Mr.  Fillmore  escorted  us  to  the  rooms  of  Mr. 
Towne  and  introduced  us  to  that  gentleman,  who  welcomed  us. 
Knowing  that  his  time  was  always  occupied,  I  sketched  my  mission 
as  rapidly  as  possible  and  then  gave  Mr.  Dickinson  an  opportunity  to 
tell  what  the  Union  Pacific  Company  had  bound  itself  and  leased  lines 
to  do,  and  to  express  his  opinion  of  it  as  a  business  transaction.  I 
noticed  that  Mr.  Towne  had  not  thrown  up  his  hands,  so  I  took  up  the 
case  again  to  explain  a  phase  of  it  that  I  had  held  in  reserve  while  I 
was  studying  the  play  of  his  mind,  and  reminded  him  that  we  had 
perfected  an  agreement  under  which  the  mails  would  be  carried  into 
Portland,  Ore.,  made  ready  by  clerks  on  the  train,  for  immediate  de- 
livery to  the  carriers  on  arrival  of  the  train  in  the  depot  at  6  :40  a.  m., 
and  at  once  by  them  to  the  patrons  of  the  Portland  office,  thus  gaining 
twelve  hours  in  arriving  time  and  twenty-four  hours  in  the  actual  de- 
livery of  the  mail  over  that  for  San  Francisco  and  on  a  longer  haul. 
I  said,  "Please  consider  this,  Mr.  Towne,  and  tell  me  if  you  believe 
the  business  interests  absolutely  dependent  upon  your  lines,  the  travel- 


125 

ing  public,  tourists,  sick  and  well,  who  are  so  large  a  part  of  your 
regular  and  transient  population  and  custom ;  the  financial  and  com- 
mercial houses  of  San  Francisco,  will  submit  quietly  to  such  discrim- 
ination long." 

Mr.  Towne  said  he  had  not  thought  of  the  subject  from  that 
standpoint,  but  would  do  so  at  once,  and  requested  me  to  call  in  the 
morning.  I  called,  and  I  think  it  was  October  14,  1889,  for  I  have  :i 
copy  of  the  original  agreement  signed  that  day.  It  provided  for  an  ar- 
rival at  San  Francisco  at  9  :45  a.  m.,  instead  of  7  :30  p.  m.  of  the  same 
day,  thus  insuring  ten  and  one-quarter  hours'  earlier  arrival  and  about 
twenty-two  hours'  earlier  delivery  to  the  addressees. 

For  the  return,  or  east-bound  run,  it  was  provided  that  the  train 
would  leave  San  Francisco  at  6  :30  p.  m.,  and  arrive  at  Ogden  at  6  :30 
a.  m.,  second  day,  and  that  during  the  summer  months  this  time  would 
be  shortened  as  much  as  the  company  deemed  safe.  It  was  also  added, 
"the  Southern  Pacific  Company  agrees  that  the  trains  which  this  prop- 
osition covers  shall  be  the  fastest  trains  run  over  their  lines  between 
the  points  named."  During  this  morning  call  the  agreement  was 
signed  by  Mr.  Towne. 

When  the  Ogden  &  San  Francisco  fast  mail  made  its  first  run 
west,  and  always  afterwards,  city  distributers  for  the  latter  city  were 
employed  on  it  to  prepare  the  mail  for  immediate  delivery  by  the 
carriers  to  the  addressees  on  arrival  in  the  city.  The  efifect  of  the 
better  schedule  and  distribution  was  felt  materially  by  all  the  towns  in 
the  state  of  California  that  were  supplied  directly  or  indirectly  by  mail 
routes  that  connected  with  this  fast  mail  train.  Towns  on  the  line  of 
the  Los  Angeles  &  San  Francisco  R.  P.  O.,  not  many  miles  west  of  the 
former  city,  were  supplied  with  mail  from  the  east  via  Omaha  &  Og- 
den, and  Ogden  &  San  Francisco  R.  P.  O.'s,  earlier  than  when  dis- 
patched by  the  more  southern  route,  passing  through  Kansas  City,  La 
Junta,  Albuquerque,  Ashfork,  Flagstaff  and  Los  Angeles.  To  accom- 
plish this  the  mail  for  that  line  was  discharged  from  the  fast  mail  at 
Sacramento  and  forwarded  via  Stockton,  Fresno,  Bakersfield,  etc. 

The  negotiations  ended,  the  most  important  work  necessary  to 
place  the  fast  mails  in  successful  operation  had  to  be  attended  to  in 
Omaha  and  Chicago.  Therefore,  we  returned  to  our  respective  head- 
quarters without  delay.  New  cars  and  additional  clerks  were  secured, 
the  readjustment  of  the  forces  of  clerks  employed  on  the  Union  Pacific, 
Northern  Pacific,  and  Great  Northern  was  made  to  conform  to  the 
shrinkage  of  mail  on  the  last  two  by  diversion  from  and  increase 
on  the  first  by  diversion  to. 


126 

On  November  15,  18S9,  at  7  p.  m.  (45  minutes  late),  the  first  fast 
mail  pulled  out  of  Omaha,  with  about  thirteen  tons  of  mail,  a  consider- 
able portion  of  which  was  destined  for  the  Green  River  &  Hunting- 
ton, Ore.,  and  the  Huntington  &  Portland  R.  P.  O.'s.  Vice-President 
Holcomb  was  very  considerate  of  our  comfort  and  enjoyment  once 
more.  He  placed  General  Manager  Dickinson  with  his  special  car  at 
our  disposal  and  never  were  men  blessed  with  a  more  agreeable  guide, 
philosopher  and  friend. 

Mr.  Edward  Dickinson  and  the  writer  had  as  guests  on  this  trip, 
Mr.  Alexander  Grant,  then  chief  clerk  of  the  railway  mail  service, 
now  general  superintendent;  Mr.  John  M.  Hubbard,  assistant  post- 
master at  Chicago;  Mr.  C.  E.  Brown,  traveling  passenger  and  adver- 
tising agent  of  the  Union  Pacific;  Mr.  F.  A.  Dunneka,  correspondent  of 
the  New  York  World;  Mr.  Ernest  Lambert,  correspondent  of  the 
New  York  Tribune;  Mr.  F.  R.  Waddell,  correspondent  of  the  Chicago 
Inter-Ocean;  Mr.  M.  Fible,  correspondent  of  the  Chicago  Tribune; 
Mr.  C.  J.  Seymour,  correspondent  of  the  Chicago  Herald;  Mr.  R.  J. 
Clancy,  correspondent  of  the  Omaha  Bee;  Mr.  Frank  Arkins, 
correspondent  of  the  Denver  News;  Mr.  Robert  Gauss,  correspond- 
ent of  the  Denver  Republican;  Mr.  C.  R.  Hanna,  correspondent  of 
the  San  Francisco  Examiner,  etc.,  etc. 

The  grade  of  the  road  from  Omaha  to  Cheyenne  seems  to  me  to 
be  up,  but  some  contend  that  there  are  long  stretches  in  the  Platte 
River  valley  of  level  country ;  I  have  noticed,  however,  in  passing  over 
the  road  many  times,  that  the  west-bound  trains  are  always  taut;  the 
engine  calling  on  her  steam  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  and  have  been 
on  the  train  many  times  when  she  has  swung  down  from  Cheyenne  to 
North  Platte  at  the  rate  of  seventy  miles  an  hour  with  the  engine 
holding  back  in  the  breeching  or  kicking  against  the  crossbar. 

The  distance  from  Omaha  to  Cheyenne  is  about  500  miles,  mostly 
up-grade,  west-bound  as  I  have  said,  but  whether  it  is  up  or  down  or 
on  the  level,  we  arrived  at  the  latter  city  on  time,  changed  mail  and 
train  crews  and  moved  on  to  Sherman  station,  thirty  miles  west  of 
Cheyenne,  and  then  came  to  a  standstill  on  the  highest  point  on  this 
transcontinental  line  between  ocean  and  ocean,  8,247  feet  above  sea 
level.  A  little  farther  west  we  came  to  Dale  Creek  bridge,  made  of 
iron,  stretching  in  a  single  span  of  650  feet  from  bank  to  bank  of  the 
little  stream  that  flows  on  and  on  127  feet  below.  From  Sherman  we 
moved  down  grade  past  Laramie,  where  "Bill  Nye,"  in  early  days, 
published  an  interesting  and  humorous  newspaper,  from  which  he 
graduated  into  the  humorous  lecture  field ;  it  was  there  also  that  he 
learned  that  the  way  to  avoid  buying  canned  fruits,  or  buying  the  fruit 


127 

and  canning  it,  was  to  raise  it  already  canned  on  trees  in  his  country 
home,  and  it  was  here  that  the  popuh  were  wont  to  decorate  the  tele- 
graph poles  with  the  badly  disorganized  "stranger  within  the  gates" 
with  whom  they  were  not  "en  rapport." 

On  we  rode  until  we  reached  Green  River,  where  a  stop  was  made 
for  train  orders  and  to  discharge  such  matter  as  was  to  be  forwarded 
by  the  Oregon  Short  Line  for  points  and  connections  between  Granger 
and  Portland.  During  this  time  the  train  that  had  brought  us  from 
Omaha  was  being  divided ;  the  cars  intended  for  the  Granger  &  Port- 
land R.  P.  O.  were  being  switched  onto  one  track,  and  those  that  were 
to  constitute  our  train  were  being  kept  together  as  much  as  possible 
on  the  main  line.  During  this  work  our  special  car  had  been  misplaced, 
and  when  our  train  was  supposed  to  be  ready  to  go  the  signal  was 
given  and  she  pulled  out  without  us,  which  was  not  discovered  until 
twelve  minutes  later ;  then  it  took  fifteen  minutes  to  correct  the  blun- 
der. This,  with  the  twenty-three  minutes  lost  before  arriving  at  Green 
River,  gave  us  an  aggregate  of  fifty  minutes  to  make  up  before  ar- 
riving at  Ogden ;  there  was  a  strong  head  wind  blowing  down  the  east 
slope  of  the  Wasatch  mountains  and  a  grade  to  overcome  that  in  some 
places  was  211  feet  per  mile,  so  that  it  was  not  possible  to  make  good 
the  loss  between  Green  River  and  Wasatch.  At  Evanston,  just  east 
of  Wasatch,  our  engine  was  relieved  by  a  more  powerful  one,  and  the 
engineer  by  a  reckless  one,  named  "Bill"  Downing,  who  understood 
that  it  was  his  business  to  get  into  Ogden  on  time,  and  he  started  to 
do  it.  The  train  commenced  to  climb  the  east  slope  of  the  Wasatch 
range  and  with  every  pound  of  steam  the  engine  could  carry,  working 
with  savage  energy,  she  reached  Wasatch  Station  without  further  loss 
of  time,  her  speed  increasing  as  the  resistance  on  the  up-grade  de- 
creased until  she  reached  the  summit  and  the  decline  began.  Dowri- 
ing's  hand  rested  on  the  controlling  lever,  but  it  was  motionless ;  he 
was  using  as  much  power  on  the  level  and  decline  as  when  breasting 
old  Wasatch  with  ten  cars  behind  him ;  and  as  we  approached  the 
opening  into  Echo  Canon  the  speed  continued,  where  the  decline  is 
sometimes  250  feet  per  mile  and  the  road  "as  crooked  as  a  ram's  horn." 
Tunnel  after  tunnel  succeeded  each  other ;  the  speed,  considering  the 
chorography,  was  terrific,  and  as  we  looked  down  into  the  depth  of 
the  canon  a  feeling  of  awe  came  over  us  like  that  which  takes  posses- 
sion of  brave  men  who  look  upon  death  in  violent  forms  from  great 
lieights  or  amidst  horrible  surroundings. 

This  ride  of  seventy-six  miles  can  be  shown  best  by  quoting  the 
following  from  an  article  written  by  one  of  the  correspondents  who 
was  with  us  on  the  trip : 


128 

"At  Evanston  the  train  was  forty  minutes  late ;  the  distance  to 
Ogden  was  seventy-six  miles,  and  a  freight  engineer  named  'Bill' 
Downing  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  train.  'Bill'  is  a  typical  moun- 
tain engineer.  He  walked  to  the  rear  of  the  car  and  speaking  to  one 
of  the  reporters  said:  'It  is  seventy-six  miles  to  Ogden  and  I  will 
not  be  happy  until  I  make  it  in  seventy-two  minutes.'  He  was  told  that 
such  a  remarkable  run  was  impossible  down  Weber  Canon.  When  he 
threw  the  lever  forward  and  opened  her  throttle  the  train  made  a 
sudden  start  that  settled  everybody's  dinner.  When  the  train  was 
finally  under  way  someone  remarked  that  it  would  be  a  terrible  thing 
to  run  off  the  track,  and  Captain  White  thought  all  the  curves  on  the 
line  were  being  straightened  out  by  the  tremendous  speed.  The  rush  of 
wind  outside  told  of  the  rapid  rate  at  which  the  train  was  traveling. 
Dust  rolled  from  beneath  the  coaches  in  volumes  and  was  caught  up 
by  the  rush  of  the  wind.  Sparks  shining  like  a  million  of  meteors  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  the  rear  coach.  Faster  and  faster  the  train  swept 
down  the  canon,  around  curves,  across  small  plateaus,  roaring  over 
bridges  and  tearing  through  tunnels  like  a  bolt  of  lightning  cast  from 
the  sky.  Those  in  the  cars  could  hear  the  wheels  grind  on  the  curves 
and  the  continuous  striking  as  they  whirled  from  one  rail  to  another. 
The  train  rocked  from  side  to  side,  the  engine  traveling  as  fast  as  pos- 
sible on  that  awful  decline." 

Another  correspondent  wrote  to  his  paper :  "The  run  began  at 
Castle  Rock.  At  Devil's  Gate,  where  the  track  was  not  so  crooked,  the 
pace  was  awful.  'Three  miles  in  two  minutes,'  gasped  Captain  White, 
reading  the  speed  indicator  which  had  been  placed  in  the  special  coach. 
Engineer  Downing  did  not  abate  his  speed  a  tittle.  Down  the  winding 
line  of  Tapioca  Gulch  the  special  car  in  the  rear  was  swinging  from 
side  to  side.  *  *  *  *  g|.jjj  'Bill'  Downing  did  not  slacken 
his  speed.  Half  of  the  newspaper  correspondents  fainted  through 
nervous  exhaustion  in  trying  to  keep  their  balance.  Nearly  all  the 
remaining  passengers  had  already  succumbed.  Suddenly,  in  rounding 
the  reverse  loop  at  Antelope  Gap  the  coach  was  careened  until  it  only 
hung  to  the  rail  by  one  wheel.  As  soon  as  the  moment  of  suspense  was 
over  and  the  coach  righted  General  Manager  Dickinson  sprang  to  his 
feet  and  called,  'Pull  the  bell  rope,  Brow^n,  then  run  forward  and  tell 
Downing  to  stop  this  if  he  wants  us  to  reach  Ogden  alive.'  'Let  the 
schedule  go,'  said  Mr.  Dickinson,  to  the  press  agent  of  the  road,  then 
not  to  run  such  a  risk  another  second  the  General  Alanager  sprang  to 
the  rear  platform  of  the  coach  and  swung  the  brake  with  all  his  might." 

"The  seventy-six  miles  of  intricately  curved  track  had  been  rid- 
den over  in  one  hour  and  five  minutes — 65  minutes.     It  was  a  hair- 


139 

raising  record,  and  several  passengers  who  went  through  it  have  not 
yet  recuperated." 

The  superintendent  of  the  Eighth  or  San  Francisco  Division,  Mr. 
James  L.  Wilder,  joined  us  at  Ogden,  fully  prepared  to  insure  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  mail  for  his  territory,  and  to  have  the  San  Francisco 
letter  mail  made  up  to  carrier  routes  so  that  the  carriers  could  com- 
mence the  delivery  throughout  the  city  without  delay.  Mr.  Wilder 
was  an  excellent  officer  and  was  for  many  years  one  of  my  chief  clerks 
in  the  Fourth,  Fifth  and  Sixth  Divisions  and  also  served  as  an  assist- 
ant superintendent,  and  superintendent  under  my  jurisdiction.  His 
death  was  lamented  very  much. 

The  run  from  Ogden  to  San  Francisco  was  without  incident,  be- 
cause not  much  of  the  gain  in  the  schedule  time  between  Chicago  and 
San  Francisco  fell  upon  that  route.  The  fast  mail  arrived  at  Oakland 
Pier  on  time,  and  but  for  the  head  wind  across  the  bay  the  first  mail 
would  have  been  thrown  ashore  five  minutes  earlier. 

"This  experimental  trip,"  Captain  White  said  exultantly,  "demon- 
strates that  we  can  place  the  people  of  the  two  seaboards  nearer  to- 
gether for  postal  purposes  by  twenty-four  hours  than  they  have  ever 
been  before  and  that  we  can  do  it  every  day,  as  we  shall." 

"To  understand  what  the  new  fast  mail  means,"  said  Alexander 
Grant,  chief  clerk  of  the  railway  mail  service  at  Washington,  "it  is 
only  necessary  to  reflect  that  the  mail  we  deliver  this  morning  could 
not  otherwise  be  delivered  until  a  day  later.  In  fact  the  mail  under  the 
new  fast  schedule  was  delivered  as  early  as  the  mail  which  left  Chi- 
cago the  day  before  under  the  old  schedule.  While  there  is  a  gain  of 
but  ten  hours  for  passengers  accompanying  the  fast  mail,  there  is  a 
gain  of  one  day  in  the  postal  service,  as  formerly  the  mail  arrived  at 
7  :45  p.  m.,  and  could  not  be  delivered  until  next  day." 

The  party  remained  in  San  Francisco  until  the  evening  of  the 
second  day,  visiting  places  of  interest,  such  as  the  parks,  Chinatown 
and  the  Cliff  House,  from  which  the  sea  lions  were  seen  sporting  on 
the  rocky  island  in  front ;  some  of  them  were  great  powerful  fellows 
with  awkward,  lumbering  bodies.  They  roared  like  the  "Bulls  of 
Bashan,"  plunged  into  the  waters,  where  they  were  graceful,  and  had 
a  hale  old  time. 

On  the  evening  of  the  second  day  we  renewed  our  long  journey, 
moving  northward  to  Portland,  Ore.,  via  the  Sacramento,  Mount 
Shasta,  the  Klamath  and  Willamette ;  we  stayed  in  Portland  two  days, 
and  the  party  was  charmed  with  it  and  the  generous  reception  ac- 
corded. Two  days  later  we  were  in  Tacoma,  Washington,  a  beauti- 
ful, progressive  and  well-behaved  city ;  it  has  grown  very  much  since 


130 

1889,  and  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  important  cities  in  the  state; 
it  has  a  population  of  more  than  100,000.  We  next  visited  Seattle  of 
the  same  state — which  has  a  population  of  about  250,000  and  occupies 
a  commanding  position  on  Puget  Sound.  In  May  or  June,  1889,  it 
was  much  smaller  than  it  is  now,  very  much,  and  was  almost  destroyed 
by  fire,  but  its  natural  advantages  had  come  to  be  known  by  men  of 
means  and  the  Government,  and  those  financiers  who  are  always  on 
the  lookout  for  investments,  camped  in  that  locality,  and  if  they  did 
not  buy  city  lots  and  improve  them,  were  willing  to  loan  money  to 
make  the  improvements  and  to  take  mortgages  on  the  improved  pro- 
perty as  security.  Seattle  has  been  booming  ever  since,  and  is  by  far 
the  largest  and  most  aggressive  city  in  the  state.  As  has  been  said, 
it  is  on  Puget  Sound,  and  has  commerce  by  water  with  the  outside 
world  via  Admiralty  Inlet  and  the  strait  of  Juan  Fuca;  it  is  the  base 
of  supply  for  Alaska  and  is  a  naval  station,  and  bound  to  be  the  great 
city  of  the  extreme  northwest. 

The  following  day  we  made  a  trip  by  the  steamer  Olympia  to 
Port  Townsend  and  steamed  diagonally  across  the  Sound  to  Victoria, 
B.  C,  where  we  were  shown  the  city,  and  handsomely  entertained  in 
the  evening  at  the  Hotel  Clarence. 

Next  day  our  return  trip  was  commenced.  At  Seattle  we  were 
met  by  a  number  of  her  prominent  citizens,  driven  in  carriages  about 
the  city  and  banqueted  at  the  Ranier  Hotel.  That  night  we  remained 
sometime  in  Tacoma  and  the  next  day  our  car  was  attached  to  the 
east-bound  fast  mail  at  Portland,  at  7  a.  m.,  and  moved  out  up  the 
Columbia  River  by  The  Dalles,  The  Bridal  Vale  and  Mount  Hood, 
over  the  track  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company  and 
the  Oregon  Short  Line,  and  the  next  morning  at  9  o'clock  were  side- 
tracked at  Shoshone  station,  Idaho,  and  were  immediately  driven  in 
wagons  across  the  country  to  Shoshone  Falls,  which  is  in  the  Snake 
River  Valley.  These  falls  are  higher  than  Niagara,  and  the  geologi- 
cal formation  of  the  valley,  the  river's  bed,  and  the  country  surround- 
ing the  crest,  and  especially  above  it,  is  wonderful.  It  is  of  volcanic 
origin  and  composed  of  some  solid  lava,  and  some  disintegrated  and 
decayed  substances.  It  seemed  almost  impossible  for  a  layman  to 
understand  whether  he  was  moving  over  a  new  born  creation  or  wit- 
nessing the  revivification  of  one  that  was  old  when  some  that  are  old 
now  were  new. 

I  never  saw  anything  like  it  but  once  and  that  was  before  the 
Oregon  Short  Line  was  built.  I  had  made  a  trip  over  the  Butte  & 
Ogden  R.  P.  O.  and  left  the  train  at  Oneida,  Idaho,  hired  a  horse, 
and  rode  alone,  not  meeting  a  human  being  en  route,  thirty  miles  to 


131 

Soda  Springs,  Idaho,  and  saw  valleys  that  were  full  of  extinct  vol- 
canoes down  whose  sides  rivers  of  molten  lava  must  have  flowed,  for 
the  craters  were  scarcely  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the 
level  surface  which  was  scarred  with  crevices  more  than  a  foot  wide. 

We  returned  in  the  evening  to  Shoshone,  had  Thanksgiving  dinner 
in  our  car,  and  then  moved  down  to  Soda  Springs,  which  is  in  the 
same  section  of  the  state,  and  where  there  are  many  springs  whose 
water  is  strongly  impregnated  with  soda  which  is  forced  up  some  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  ground  by  pressure  from  below,  and  bubbles 
over  like  water  forced  upward  from  a  fountain  in  a  park ;  but  this 
water  throws  off  a  sediment  which  hardens  around  the  circle  of  the 
jet  until  it  closes  it  in;  sometimes  the  mound  thus  created  is  fifteen  or 
twenty  feet  in  height  and  as  much  in  diameter.  A  hard  shell  forms 
on  the  outside,  hard  enough  to  walk  upon,  but  you  can  break  the  crust 
with  your  pocket  knife  and  the  water  will  ooze  through  freely.  Dead 
animals  are  hung  at  times  under  improvised  shelter,  and  the  water  that 
oozes  from  the  shell  is  conducted  so  as  to  flow  over  the  bodies,  which 
become  completely  incased  and  preserved.  As  soon  as  the  Granger  & 
Portland  fast  mail  arrived  at  Soda  Springs,  east-bound,  we  were 
coupled  onto  it  and  run  down  to  Green  River;  attached  to  the  Omaha 
&  Ogden  fast  mail  and  kept  moving  until  we  arrived  at  our  several 
homes,  Omaha,  Chicago,  New  York  and  Washington. 

Fast  mail  service  existed  between  New  York,  Boston,  Chicago 
and  Omaha  at  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  this  service,  from 
Omaha  to  San  Francisco,  and  Portland,  Nov.  17,  1889,  as  follows : 

MILEAGE. 
Boston,  Mass.,  to  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  3,293  miles. 
New  York,  N.  Y.,  to  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  3,239  miles. 
Boston,  Mass.,  to  Portland,  Ore.,  3,306  miles. 
New  York.  N.  Y.,  to  Portland,  Ore.,  3,252  miles. 

TIME. 
Boston,  Mass.,  to  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  109  hours,  45  minutes. 
New  York,  N.  Y.,  to  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  108  hours,  45  minutes. 
Boston,  Mass.,  to  Portland,  Ore.,  106  hours,  40  minutes. 
New  York,  N.  Y.,  to  Portland,  Ore.,  104  hours,  55  minutes. 

RETURN  TIME. 
San  Francisco,  Cal.,  to  New  York,  N.  Y.,  127  hours,  30  minutes. 
San  Francisco,  Cal.,  to  Boston,  Mass.,  131  hours,  50  minutes. 
Portland,  Ore.,  to  Boston,  Mass.,  120  hours,  50  minutes. 
Portland,  Ore.,  to  New  York,  N.  Y.,  116  hours,  30  minutes. 


133 

SCHEDULE  WEST. 

Left  Boston,  7  p.  m. ;  New  York,  9  p.  m. ;  arrived  Chicago,  12:35 
a.  m. ;  left  3  a.  m. ;  arrived  Omaha,  5  :30  p.  m. ;  left  6  :30  p.  m. ;  ar- 
rived Granger,  Wyo.,  ;  arrived  Ogden,   12:30  a.   m. ;  left  at 

12  :50  a.  m. ;  arrived  San  Francisco,  9  :-l:5  a.  m. ;  arrived  at  Portland, 
Oregon,  7  a.  m. 

SCHEDULE  EAST. 

Left  San  Francisco,  8  p.  m. ;  left  Portland  the  following  7  a.  m. ; 

arrived  Ogden,  8  a.  m. ;  arrived  Granger,  ;  arrived  Omaha,  4 

p.  m. ;  arrived  Chicago,  7  a.  m. ;  arrived  New  York,  10  :30  a.  m.,  and 
Boston,  2 :50  p.  m. 

This  was  considered  good  time  in  1889,  and  it  was  a  vast  improve- 
ment over  the  first  fast  mail,  but  a  real  live  fast  mail  was  unknown 
between  New  York,  Boston  and  Chicago  until  the  present  schedule  of 
No.  35,  New  York  &  Chicago  Fast  Mail,  was  issued,  and  all  the  fast 
mails  that  had  been  running  in  connection  with  it  quickened  theii' 
schedules  likewise;  then  a  splendid  improvement  occurred.  The  best 
previous  time  between  the  cities  named  and  San  Francisco  and  Port- 
land was  cut  as  follows : 

Between  New  York  and  San  Francisco  to  87  hours,  53  minutes; 
between  Boston  and  San  Francisco  to  89  hours,  38  minutes;  between 
New  York  and  Portland  to  95  hours,  35  minutes ;  between  Boston 
and  Portland  to  96  hours,  40  minutes. 

The  effect  in  expediting  the  mails  all  over  the  west,  northwest  and 
southwest  by  this  schedule  of  No.  35  is  most  valuable  and  is  so  great 
that  man  cannot  compute  it.  I,  of  course,  understand  that  such  won- 
ders could  not  have  occurred  had  not  the  increase  of  our  mail  been 
phenomenal,  indeed  it  has  been  so  phenomenal  that  evidently  the  com- 
panies have  thought  best  to  encourage  it  by  increased  facilities. 

This  is  evidenced  by  the  present  schedules  of  the  companies  that 
provided  and  withdrew  the  first  so-called  fast  mail: 

WEST. 

No.  35,  leaves  New  York,  9  :30  p.  m. ;  BufiPalo,  8  :05  a.  m. ;  Cleve- 
land, 11 :35  a.  m. ;  Chicago,  8  :20  p.  m. 

No.  43,  leaves  New  York,  3  :05  a.  m. ;  Buffalo,  1 :15  p.  m. ;  Cleve- 
land, 4:40  p.  m. ;  Chicago,  1:20  a.  m. 

No.  3,  leaves  New  York,  8  :46  a.  m. ;  Bufifalo,  7  :15  p.  m. ;  Cleve- 
land, 10  :45  p.  m. ;  Chicago,  7  :30  a.  m. 

No.  9,  leaves  New  York,  12  :51  p.  m. ;  Buffalo,  11 :05  p.  m. ;  Cleve- 
land, 2:50  a.  m. ;  Chicago,  11:52  a.  m. 

No.  21,  leaves  New  York,  5 :21  p.  m. ;  Buffalo,  3 :40  p.  m. ;  Cleve- 
land, 7  :05  a.  m. ;  Chicago,  4 :00  p.  m. 


Hon.  a.  H.  Stephens 

Superintendent  Eighth  Division  R.  M.  S. 
(See  Appendix) 


133 

EAST. 

No.  32,  leaves  Chicago,  3  :00  a.  m. ;  Cleveland,  11 :30  a.  m. ;  Buffa- 
lo, 5 :05  p.  m. ;  New  York,  4 :04  a.  m. 

No.  4,  leaves  Chicago,  8  :25  a.  m. ;  Cleveland,  4 :20  p.  m. ;  Buffalo, 
9  :28  p.  m. ;  New  York,  7  :55  a.  m. 

No.  30,  leaves  Chicago,  5  :25  p.  m. ;  Cleveland,  1 :50  a.  m. ;  Buffalo, 
7  :30  a.  m. ;  New  York,  5  :48  p.  m. 

No.  10,  leaves  Chicago,  10  :30  a.  m. ;  Cleveland,  7  :40  a.  m. ;  Buf- 
falo, 1 :45  a.  m. ;  New  York,  1 :49  p.  m. 

No.  16,  leaves  Chicago,  1 :40  p.  m. ;  Cleveland,  10  :25  p.  m. ;  Buf- 
falo, 4:05  a.  m. ;  New  York,  3:45  p.  m. 

If  further  testimony  or  figures  are  needed  to  convince  anyone 
that  the  present  schedules  are  made  for  the  expedition  of  the  mail 
and  the  benefit  of  the  people  as  a  whole  they  can  be  furnished. 

HISTORY. 

Immediately  after  my  last  promotion  I  made  an  extended  tour 
of  the  Pacific  coast  states  to  ascertain  if  the  condition  of  the  service 
in  Idaho,  Montana,  Oregon  and  Washington  was  such  as  to  justify 
compliance  with  the  demand  of  the  citizens  of  those  states  that  an 
additional  division  be  created,  with  headquarters  at  Portland,  Oregon, 
for  their  benefit  and  that  of  the  territory  of  Alaska,  or  whether  such 
inefficiencies  and  insufiiciencies  as  existed  might  not  be  remedied  in 
an  effectual  manner  with  larger  economy. 

At  the  time  of  this  inspection,  1890,  the  aggregate  population  of 
the  Eighth  division  was  2,268,958;  less  than  half  that  of  the  First  (or 
New  England)  division,  whereas  its  area,  not  including  Alaska,  which 
is  577,390  square  miles,  was  more  than  eleven  times  greater  and  its 
acreage  of  farm  land  about  four  times  less,  being  13  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  as  against  57  per  cent,  in  the  First.  The  aggregate  population 
of  Idaho,  Oregon  and  Washington  was  then  747,542,  now  it  is  about 
1,457,121,  more  than  413,049  greater  than  that  of  the  whole  Eighth 
division  in  1874,  when  it  was  so  designated.  Observation  and  inquiry 
satisfied  me  that  such  deficiencies  of  service  as  existed  then,  and  such 
prospective  growth  of  population  and  productiveness  as  were  likely 
to  occur  in  the  immediate  future,  could  be  provided  for  by  properly 
placing  some  additional  service  and  re-arranging  some  that  had  been 
established.  In  addition  to  this  I  held  that  because  of  the  remoteness 
of  these  states  from  San  Francisco,  the  headquarters  of  the  division, 
and  the  physical  formation  of  the  country,  which  was  such  as  to  inter- 
pose obstacles  to  free  and  quick  intercommunication  between  sections, 


134 

there  should  be  stationed  at  Portland,  Oregon,  an  experienced  officer 
of  our  service,  known  to  be  of  first-class  capacity  and  clear  judgment, 
capable  of  acting  as  the  direct  representative  of  the  Post  Office  De- 
partment in  special  cases^  diplomatically,  and  without  danger  of  home 
friction ;  one  who  would  be  in  touch  with  the  development  of  those 
.'-tates  at  all  times,  and  keep  the  Department  advised  of  their  needs 
either  directly  or  through  the  superintendent  of  the  division.  This 
arrangement  was  perfected  and  existed  until  recently.  Mr.  Frank  W. 
Vaille,  the  present  superintendent  of  the  Thirteenth  division,  was  the 
first  officer  so  assigned  and  he  demonstrated  his  fitness  in  advance. 

The  tour  of  inspection  was  extended  south  as  soon  as  the  railroad 
and  steamboat  service  in  the  states  named  had  received  critical  atten- 
tion, and  some  unsatisfactory  matters  corrected.  Some  time  was  given 
to  Mr.  Flint  in  San  Francisco,  who  was  acting  as  superintendent,  Mr. 
Wilder,  the  superintendent,  being  very  ill  and  absent.  When  we  left 
San  Francisco  we  made  a  short  visit  to  Sacramento,  Cal.,  and 
proceeded  thence  to  Los  Angeles,  San  Diego,  Santa  Barbara,  Albu- 
querque, etc.,  taking  Mr.  Flint  along.  My  time  was  fully  occupied 
with  correspondence,  listening  to  such  suggestions  respecting  the  service 
as  the  good  people  whom  I  met  desired  to  make,  each  being  encouraged 
to  speak  freely,  and  relief  being  given  when  possible ;  making  memor- 
anda of  and  verifying  such  statements  as  seemed  in  the  least  doubtful, 
thus  preparing  the  cases,  to  which  they  related,  for  definite  action 
without  further  investigation. 

It  would  have  been  impossible  to  accomplish  all  that  was  done 
on  this  tour,  if  David  B.  Todd  had  not  accompanied  me  in  the  capacity 
of  stenographer,  carrying  a  typewriting  machine  but  little  smaller  than 
himself.  Our  David,  however,  handled  it  as  easily  as  David  of  old 
did  the  Philistine  warrior,  Goliath.  David  was  an  unknown  quantity 
to  me  then,  for  I  had  not  had  time  to  become  acquainted  with  any  one 
in  my  office,  who  were  strangers  to  me,  before  I  was  rushed  to  the 
Pacific ;  but  before  we  returned  I  formed  a  liking  for  him  and  retained 
him  as  my  secretary  until  I  retired. 

While  working  around  Los  Angeles  I  ran  out  to  the  suburban  town 
in  which  Supt.  Wilder  and  his  wife  were  residing  temporarily,  to  see 
him,  and  was  grieved  to  find  him  very  ill,  so  ill  that  his  life  was  de- 
spaired of.  He  endured  his  affliction  with  fortitude;  but  quickly  grew 
worse,  and  resigned  his  office  June  1^  1891,  being  succeeded  by  Mr. 
Flint. 

James  L.  Wilder  was  one  of  the  early  appointees  of  the  service. 
He  entered  it  as  a  route  agent  in  the  state  of  Wisconsin,  and  was  ad- 
vanced class  by  class  on  merit,  becoming  in  time  chief  head  clerk  at 


135 

Milwaukee,  Wis.,  special  agent  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  assist- 
ant superintendent  in  the  Sixth  division,  and  ended  his  career  as  su- 
perintendent of  the  Eighth  division.  He  was  a  rough  diamond,  true 
as  a  man  and  an  officer;  competent,  faithful,  and  loyal.  His  whole 
service  was  in  the  Chicago  division,  except  the  time  he  was  superin- 
tendent of  the  San  Francisco  division.  He  died  at  his  old  home  in 
Oshkosh,  Wis.,  on  the  28th  day  of  June,  1892,  and  is  remembered 
for  his  many  excellent  qualities. 

More  than  seven  weeks  were  devoted  to  this  tour  and  the  results 
were  satisfactory  to  the  Department  and  the  people  most  interested, 
for  the  service  was  very  materially  improved  and  the  creation  of  an 
additional  division  was  deferred  eighteen  years  without  detriment  to 
the  commercial  interests  of  the  extreme  northwestern  group  of  states, 
comprising  the  major  portion  of  the  present  Thirteenth  division. 

The  results  were : 

Thirteen  hundred  miles  of  additional  railway  post  office  service 
was  established,  613  of  it  between  October  29th  and  December  31st, 
1890;  and  17  railway  post  offices  and  railroad  lines  centering  at  and 
adjacent  to  Spokane,  Wash.,  that  were  under  the  immediate  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  chief  clerk  at  Portland,  Oregon,  were  assigned  temporarily 
to  the  chief  clerk  at  Plelena,  Montana,  to  insure  better  supervision. 
Desk  room  was  secured  for  the  latter  in  the  depot  at  Spokane,  and 
arrangements  were  made  for  him  to  spend  a  portion  of  his  time  in 
inspecting  the  lines  and  examining  the  clerks.  Mr.  Barclay  was  the 
chief  clerk  at  Helena  at  that  time  and  I  regarded  him  as  a  very  bright 
and  competent  officer. 

Many  lines  were  strengthened.  Such  points  on  Puget  Sound  as 
could  be  better  supplied  by  rail  than  by  steamboat  were  withdrawn 
from  the  latter  and  given  to  the  former ;  the  railway  post  office  service, 
Huntington  to  Portland,  Oregon,  was  duplicated  between  Pendleton 
and  Portland ;  railway  post  office  service  was  established  in  lieu  of 
closed  pouch  service  between  Blaine  and  Sedro,  Wash.,  which  pro- 
vided service  by  rail  from  the  east  via  Portland,  Tacoma  and  Seattle, 
with  all  points  north  of  Anacortes  and  Sedro  on  Puget  Sound  and  in 
British  Columbia.  The  same  class  of  service  was  extended  from 
Woolley  to  Anacortes,  the  clerks  running  through  from  Tacoma  to 
Anacortes  and  connecting  at  Woolley  with  the  Blaine  and  Sedro  rail- 
way post  office.  Service  by  clerks  was  also  established  between  Cen- 
tralia  and  Hoquiam,  making  a  line  from  Tacoma  to  the  latter  place, 
and  additional  service  was  placed  on  the  route  from  Seattle  to  Port- 
land. Additional  railway  post  office  service  was  established  between 
San  Francisco  and  Pacific  Grove,  Cal.,  and  between  Los  Angeles  and 


136 

National  City.  Much  more  was  done  during  the  fiscal  year  1891,  but 
enough  has  been  mentioned  to  show  that  the  service  in  those  states 
was  put  in  first-class  condition,  and  to  explain  why  the  people  were 
satisfied. 

REHABILITATION. 

The  clerks  of  all  the  divisions  had  been  applying  themselves  to 
master  the  schemes  of  distribution  and  to  make  creditable  records  on 
their  general  work  and  conduct.  They  had  shown  that  they  compre- 
hended the  expectations  of  the  Department,  the  exalted  character  of 
their  employment,  and  the  need  to  excel  in  it  to  be  counted  worthy  to 
rank  as  members  of  the  corps  of  clerks  composed  of  the  fittest;  this, 
too,  independent  of  the  fact  that  Postmaster  General  Wanamaker  had. 
caused  it  to  be  announced  that  he  would  present  gold  medals  for  the 
best  record  in  each  division,  and  one  at  large. 

These  were  splendid  medals,  not  only  intrinsically  and  artistically, 
but  especially  because  they  represented  the  views  of  one  of  the  greatest 
merchant  princes  of  the  world,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  competent 
Postmasters  General,  respecting  the  importance  to  success  in  any  busi- 
ness, of  thorough  knowledge  of  that  business. 

The  medal  contest  closed  with  the  calendar  year  1890.  The 
awards  were  made  in  January,  1891,  and  the  Fifth  division  held  its 
"Second  Annual  Reception"  at  division  headquarters  on  the  evening 
of  February  19,  1891. 

During  this  contest  a  change  had  occurred  in  the  General  Superin- 
tendency,  the  writer  succeeding  Mr.  Bell,  who  had  been  appointed 
Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General.  The  Postmaster  General  and 
the  Second  Assistant  had  intended  to  be  present  at  this  reception,  but, 
as  the  date  set  for  it  approached,  it  was  found  that  it  clashed  with  en- 
gagements they  could  not  defer,  and  so  were  reluctantly  compelled  to 
forego  the  pleasure.  I  cannot  say  that  their  loss  was  my  gain,  because 
I  should  have  been  present  in  any  event,  and  there  was  plenty,  and 
more,  of  everything  good  and  pleasant  to  insure  the  enjoyment  of  all 
who  were  expected. 

The  day  preceding  the  festivities  Mr.  Grant  and  I  picked  up  our 
grips  and  started  for  the  Mecca  of  the  devout  followers  of  the  examin- 
ation case  in  the  Fifth  division.  We  arrived,  were  welcomed  by  a  host 
of  friends,  and  met  many  other  guests,  among  whom  were  Superin- 
tendents Lewis  L.  Troy,  James  P.  Lindsay,  George  W.  Pepper  and 
Norman  Perkins;  Assistant  Superintendent  Victor  J.  Bradley;  Chief 
Clerks  P.  P.  Waring,  A.  J.  Miller,  F.  C.  Gore,  James  McConnell; 
Postmaster  James  Brown  of  Toledo,  Ohio,  and  Assistant  Postmasters 


Hon.  Charles  Rager 

Superintendent  Fifth  Division  R.  M.  vS. 
(See  Appendix) 


137 

Thompson  and  Lanning  of  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  and  Columbus,  Ohio,  re- 
spectively. 

As  on  the  previous  occasion,  Mr.  Burt  was  the  master  of  cere- 
monies, and  the  toastmaster,  and  as  usual  acquitted  himself  with  eclat. 
Most  of  the  guests  responded  very  pleasantly  as  they  were  called  out ; 
some  addresses  were  instructive,  and  all  were  interesting. 

The  medal  for  this  division  was  won  by  Mr.  C.  V.  McChesney, 
class  5,  Grafton  and  Cincinnati  railway  post  office,  he  having  distri- 
buted 99.98  per  cent,  of  10,367  post  offices  correctly  into  608  separa- 
tions in  7  hours  and  1  minute — a  very  excellent  record. 

Messrs.  C.  D.  Rogers  and  G.  W.  Althouse,  class  5 ;  E.  S.  Williams 
and  E.  D.  Massie,  class  4 ;  C.  R.  Hedrick  and  J.  R.  Buck,  class  3 ;  C. 
G.  Mendenhall  and  A.  W.  Suttles,  class  2 ;  L.  O.  Brookshire  and  J. 
E.  Bellville,  class  1,  received  honorable  mention,  and  the  hearty  con- 
gratulations of  the  Postmaster  General,  through  the  medium  of  the 
General  Superintendent,  who  considered  himself  highly  favored  in  be- 
ing instructed  to  perform  this  function  and  in  the  opportunity  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  pleasure  of  the  occasion. 

The  "Postal  Clerks'  Lament"  by  the  office  quartette,  and  "Our 
Wives  and  Sweethearts"  by  Harry  First — who  may  be  regarded  as  an 
expert  in  that  line  of  oratory — were  gems  of  their  class  and  were  en- 
thusiastically applauded.  This  was  a  memorable  occasion,  one  that 
will  never  be  forgotten  by  the  service,  I  am  sure. 

The  General  Superintendent  presented  one  medal  for  the  compe- 
tition of  the  whole  service  for  1891 ;  the  officers  of  the  Fifth  division 
offered  five  for  competition  in  that  division. 

The  following  year,  1892,  the  Postmaster  General  offered  one 
medal  for  the  best  record  in  each  division. 

These  several  manifestations  of  interest  in  the  service  and  the 
evident  desire  that  the  clerks  excel  in  their  work  were  fruitful.  The 
receptions  at  which  the  medal  presentations  occurred  were  rare  events. 
Many  members  of  the  division  assembled  each  time  they  were  held 
at  headquarters,  escorting  wives,  mothers,  daughters,  sisters  and 
sweethearts,  and  made  the  banquet  room  and  communicating  halls 
resound  with  notes  of  joy  and  gladness ;  those  of  the  division  were 
devoted  to  each  other  and  all  to  their  guests ;  the  addresses  were  good, 
full  of  worthy  thoughts,  replete  with  wit,  poetry  and  anecdote;  later 
came  music,  song,  the  dance  and  then  the  good-nights  and  good-byes. 
I  believe  the  receptions  produced  happiness,  harmony,  subordination, 
loyalty,  and,  combined  with  the  medals,  strengthened  the  determina- 
tion to  excel  at  a  time  when  the  service  was  not  permeated  with  the 
esprit  dc  corps  of  to-day.     In  fact,  the  habit  of  making  good  records 


138 

became  chronic  with  most  of  the  men  and  it  is  so  now.  With  practice 
the  mastery  of  the  schemes  has  become  less  of  a  problem  than  it  was 
immediately  after  the  dawn  of  the  resurrection. 

CIVIL  SERVICE  EXAMINATION. 

The  civil  service  examination  has  demonstrated  that  a  large  ma- 
jority of  those  who  gain  admission  into  the  service  are  of  good  intel- 
lectual ability  and  fairly  w^ell  educated,  and  the  examination  case  has 
shown  that  this  majority  has  the  capacity,  with  proper  instruction 
and  encouragement,  to  memorize  the  schemes  of  distribution  and 
schedules  of  connections  at  junctions.  Nevertheless,  it  was  discovered 
soon  after  the  present  civil  service  laws  and  rules  became  operative 
that  effective  provision  had  not  been  made  to  ascertain  who  were  phys- 
ically unsound,  and  to  bar  them  from  the  educational  examination 
as  being  disqualified  for  a  service  demanding  perfect  physical  manhood. 

Defective  eyesight,  heart  action,  lungs,  limbs,  muscular  and 
nervous  systems  are,  to  a  considerable  extent,  products  of  the  railway 
mail  service,  and  when  they  exist  they  become  more  active  and  harmful 
in  than  out  of  the  service.  If  it  could  be  known  at  the  examination 
that  any  of  these  defects  were  hereditary  in  the  ancestors  of  an  appli- 
cant, though  apparently  absent  in  him,  it  would  be  in  the  interest  of  the 
service,  the  beneficial  associations,  and  the  Government  to  exclude  him 
from  the  educational  examination.  It  would  also  be  in  the  interest  of 
the  employees  because  the  nearer  the  corps  approaches  the  maximum 
of  physical  and  mental  strength,  individually  and  collectively,  the 
greater  its  capacity  for  work  and  the  longer  its  period  of  usefulness. 
These  demands  would  be  bound  to  argue  for  greater  consideration  of 
the  welfare  of  the  clerks  in  most  respects,  larger  compensation,  re- 
tirement on  pay  when  unfitted  for  work  by  injuries  while  on  duty,  or 
upon  arriving  at  an  advanced  age.  There  are  other  prohibitory  defects, 
such  as  impaired  hearing,  impediment  of  speech,  and  the  failure  to 
measure  up  to  a  fixed  height  and  weight. 

This  oversight  was  discussed  earnestly  in  the  convention  of  su- 
perintendents of  divisions  held  at  Washington,  D.  C,  in  1891.  The 
result  was,  as  expected  from  experienced  and  reliable  officers,  the 
affirmation  of  the  necessity  for  a  thoroughly  reliable  physical  examina- 
tion to  precede  the  educational.  Upon  this,  action  was  taken  without 
delay.  The  matter  was  presented  to  the  Civil  Service  Commission, 
who  assured  me  they  would  support  any  practical  measure  recom- 
mended by  the  Department.  In  my  report  for  the  fiscal  year  1891  I 
made  a  recommendation  prefacing  it  substantially  with  these  remarks : 


139 

"Unfortunately  many  of  the  appointees  have  been  deficient  in 
stamina  and  therefore  could  not  endure  the  hardships  incident  to  con- 
tinuous mental  and  physical  labor  under  such  conditions  as  surround 
railway  postal  clerks,  who  work  upon  trains  running  at  a  high  rate  of 
speed  around  curves,  over  crossings  and  bridges,  past  other  trains 
moving  at  the  same  velocity,  and  by  rattling  switches.  No  one  who 
has  not  experienced  it  can  understand  how  great  is  the  exertion  re- 
quired to  maintain  one's  position  at  the  cases  and  racks  so  as  to  distri- 
bute mail  matter  with  the  utmost  freedom  of  action  and  accurately, 
nor  can  those  who  have  not  participated  in  railway  accidents  or  stood 
for  hours  over  the  trucks  of  a  fast  moving  car  distributing  the  mail, 
piece  by  piece,  or  spent  his  lay-off  hours  in  memorizing  the  distribution 
and  connections  of  a  large  number  of  states,  understand  the  extent  of 
the  mental  strain  and  nervous  exhaustion  that  overtakes  a  clerk  at 
times. 

"It  is  true  that  Form  No.  1,  Voucher  4,  of  application  for  civil 
service  examination,  contains  ten  questions  which  are  to  be  answered 
by  the  physician  who  certifies  as  to  the  physical  condition  of  the  appli- 
cant, but  these  questions  are  not  full  enough  to  determine  the  candi- 
date's physical  adaptability  for  the  service.  The  physician  is  not  re- 
quired to  make  his  statements  under  oath^  and  as  a  consequence  there 
are  abundant  reasons  to  believe  that  friendship,  personal  obligations, 
family  ties,  and  the  desire  to  accommodate  acquaintances  sometimes 
impel  him  to  be  more  merciful  than  is  consistent  with  professional 
responsibility  or  reputation.  If  this  were  not  true  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  the  deformed  and  ruptured  or  those  afflicted  with  pulmo- 
nary diseases  to  secure  appointments.  The  character  of  the  service  and 
the  apparent  indulgent  and  unreliable  nature  of  some  of  the  examina- 
tions made  by  physicians,  as  indicated  in  the  unsound  and  effeminate 
condition  of  many  who  are  certified  and  appointed  to  this  service,  show 
the  imperative  necessity  for  more  stringent  rules  to  govern  physical 
examinations ;  and  I  therefore  recommend  that  at  every  place  where 
civil  service  examinations  are  held,  one  or  more  physicians  of  acknowl- 
edged ability  and  trustworthiness  be  designated  by  the  Civil  Service 
Commission  or  by  the  Postmaster  General  to  make  the  physical  ex- 
amination required,  and  that  they  shall  receive  from  the  applicants 
whom  they  examine  a  reasonable  fee  for  their  services. 

"I  also  recommend  that  the  physical  examination  shall  be  made 
on  the  following  lines  : 

(1)  Minimum  height,  5  feet,  4  inches. 

(2)  Minimum  weight,  128  pounds. 

(3)  Condition  of  sight. 


140 

(4)  Is  his  hearing  defective? 

(5)  Has  he  any  defects  of  speech? 

(6)  Has  he  any  defects  of  Hmb? 

(7)  Is  he  ruptured? 

(8)  Has  he  any  defects  in  the  functions  of  the  brain? 

(9)  Has  he  any  defects  in  the  functions  of  the  nervous  system? 

(10)  Has  he  any  defects  in  the  functions  of  the  muscular  system? 

(11)  State  the  measurement  of  the  chest  upon  full  expiration  a,nd 
inspiration. 

(12)  Is  the  respiration  full,  free  and  unobstructed  in  both  lungs? 

(13)  State  the  frequency  of  the  heart's  action;  are  its  movements 
regular,  or  are  there  indications  of  organic,  muscular  or  nervous  de- 
rangements ? 

(14)  Any  indications  of  derangement  of  abdominal  viscera? 

(15)  Any  indications  that  the  applicant  is  addicted  to  the  exces- 
sive use  of  intoxicants? 

(16)  Do  you  believe  him  capable  of  prolonged  and  severe  mental 
and  physical  exertion,  and  equal  to  the  demands  of  a  very  exhausting 
occupation  ? 

(17)  Do  you  believe  him  to  be  free  from  any  form  of  disease  or 
disability  which  unfits  him  at  present  or  is  likely  to  unfit  him  in  the 
future  for  the  performance  of  the  class  of  work  described  in  question 
No.  16? 

"The  minimum  height  given  is  as  low  as  should  be  allowed  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  cases,  racks  and  tables  used  in  the  postal  cars  are 
of  a  standard  and  uniform  height,  and  can  not  be  lowered  without  re- 
ducing their  capacity  or  discommoding  a  majority  of  the  employees  of 
the  service. 

"By  adopting  and  strictly  enforcing  the  stringent  physical  examin- 
ation herein  provided  for  the  service  will  be  placed  on  a  better  business 
basis,  and  the  proposed  superannuation  act  would,  if  it  becomes  a  law, 
be  very  materially  strengthened  and  its  successful  operation  insured."' 

This  recommendation  was  approved  by  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment and  also  by  the  Civil  Service  Commission,  and  the  physical  ex- 
amination was  instituted  as  soon  as  it  could  be  prepared.  In  the  re- 
port for  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1892,  it  was  mentioned  under 
the  heading,  "Civil  Service  Examinations,"  as  follows : 

"It  affords  this  office  great  pleasure  to  state  that  the  recommenda- 
tion made  in  its  last  report,  that  applicants  for  examination  for  posi- 
tions in  the  railway  mail  service  be  subjected  to  a  more  stringent  phys- 
ical examination,  has  been  carried  into  effect.  If  the  examining 
physician  is  competent  and  conscientious  it  is  now  impossible  for  an 


141 

unhealthy  or  unsound  man  to  enter  the  service,  and  the  effect  of  the 
change  has  been  very  beneficial.  The  best  interests  of  the  service 
seemed  to  make  a  modification  of  some  of  the  rules  desirable,  and  it  is 
gratifying  to  record  the  fact  that  upon  a  proper  showing  the  commis- 
sion invariably  co-operated  with  this  ofiice  in  all  its  efforts  in  that 
direction." 

The  allusion  made  to  the  Civil  Service  Commission  brought  out 
a  letter,  which  I  prize  very  highly.    The  following  is  a  copy  of  it : 

"United  States  Civil  Service  Commission, 

"Washington,  D.  C,  December  29,  1893. 

"Hon.  James  E  .  White,  General  Superintendent  Railway  Mail  Service, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

"My  Dear  Sir:  I  wish  to  thank  you  very  heartily  for  your  cour- 
teous allusion  to  the  Civil  Service  Commission  in  your  excellent  annual 
report.  The  allusion  was  a  matter  of  peculiar  gratification  both  to 
myself  and  to  the  rest  of  the  commission ;  particularly  coming  as  it 
did  from  a  gentleman  of  your  reputation  and  experience.  We  have 
done  our  best  to  co-operate  in  every  way  with  your  branch  as  with  all 
others  of  the  Government  service  in  the  effort  to  obtain  the  best  pos- 
sible kind  of  public  employees,  and  we  appreciate  very  heartily  so 
frank  and  kindly  an  acknowledgment  of  our  efforts  as  that  you  made. 

"With  assurances  of  esteem, 

"Very  truly  yours, 
"(Signed)     Theodore  Roosevelt." 

As  soon  as  favorable  action  was  taken  upon  the  recommendation 
we  commenced  framing  a  form  of  medical  certificate  to  be  used  wher- 
ever examinations  were  made.  Samples  of  the  form  followed  in  the 
regular  army  examination  of  recruits  and  suggestions  from  specialists 
were  secured.  The  division  superintendents  were  very  much  inter- 
ested in  this  innovation  and  sent  to  the  office  all  information  on  the 
subject  they  could  secure  and  that  they  believed  would  be  helpful. 
The  result  was  the  adoption  of  a  form  similar  to  the  following: 

"Medical  Certificate 

"For  Raihmy  Mail  Applicants  Only. 

Every  applicant  for  the  railway  mail  service  must  be  examined 

by  a  physician,  who  must  execute  the  following  certificate.    Applicants 

who  are  under  5  feet,  4  inches  in  height  or  under  125  pounds  in  weight 

are  not  eligible  for  this  examination.  N.  B. — The  examining  physician  is 


142 

requested  to  read  this  certificate  carefully  before  beginning  the  exam- 
ination. 

(All  entries  upon  this  certificate   must  be  written   in   ink.) 

1.  What  is  the  applicant's  exact  height  in  his  bare 

feet?  (The  physician  must  measure  the  ap- 
plicant. )  ....  feet ....  inches 

2.  What  is  the  applicant's  exact  weight  in  his  or- 

dinary   clothing,    without    overcoat   or    hat? 

(The  physician  must  weigh  the  applicant.)      pounds 

3.  Did  you  yourself  weigh  and  measure  the  ap- 

plicant?   

4.  What  is  the  condition  of  the  applicant's  sight? 

(If  possible  the  test  should  be  made  with 

Snellen's  cards  and  expressed  in  twentieths.)    

If  the  applicant  has  any  defect  of  sight  in 

either  eye  describe  fully.  

5.  What  is  the  condition  of  the  applicant's  hear- 

ing? (State  the  distance,  in  feet,  at  which  he 
can  hear  the  ticking  of  a  closed  watch  held  in 

the  open  hand,  testing  each  ear  with  the  other feet,  right  ear 

plugged.)  feet,  left  ear 

If  he  has  any  defect  of  hearing  in  either  ear 

describe  fully.  

6.  What  is  the  condition  of  the  applicant's  speech  ? 

(If  he  has  any  defect  describe  fully.)  

7.  What  is  the  condition  of  the  applicant's  limbs? 

(If  he  has  any  defect  in  either  arm  or  in 

either  leg  describe  fully.)  

(Varicose   veins,    ulcers,    or   any    deformity 

should  be  specially  reported.)  

8.  Has  the  applicant  any  rupture,  either  inguinal, 

ventral,  or  femoral  ?  

(If  he  has  a  rupture  describe  fully,  stating 
extent,  whether  or  not  it  is  kept  in  place  by  a 
truss,  and  if  the  retention  is   satisfactory.)    

9.  Has  the  applicant  varicocele,  hydrocele,  inter- 

nal or  external  piles,  fistula  in  ano  or  any 
cutaneous  disease?  (If  so,  describe  the  dis- 
ease, and  state  to  what  extent  the  applicant 
is  affected.)  


143 


10.  Has  the  applicant  any  defect  in  the  functions 

of  the  brain  or  nervous  system?  

(If  so,  describe  the  defect,  and  state  to  what 

extent  the  appHcant  is  afifected.)  

11.  Give  the  measurements  of  the  apphcant's  chest : 

At  rest.  inches 

At  full  inspiration.  inches 

At  full  expiration.  inches 

12.  Is  the  applicant's  respiration  full,  free  and  un- 

obstructed in  both  lungs  ?  

(If  not,  state  to  what  extent  obstructed.)    

13.  State  the  frequency  of  the  action  of  the  appli- 

cant's heart: 

When  sitting.  . . .  .beats  per  min. 

When  standing.  .  . .  .beats  per  min. 

When  standing  after  brief  exercise.  (The  ap- 
plicant should  be  required  to  hop  on  one  foot 
the  distance  of  about  13  feet.)  .  .  .  .beats  per  min. 

14.  Are  there  indications  in  the  heart's  action  of 

organic,  muscular,  or  nervous  derangement?   

(If  so,  describe  fully.)  

15.  Are  there  indications  that  the  applicant  is  ad- 

dicted to  excessive  use  of  intoxicating  bever- 
ages, tobacco,  or  narcotics  in  any  form?         

(If  so,  describe  fully.)  

IG.  Is  the  applicant  capable  of  prolonged,  severe, 
mental  and  physical  exertion,  and  equal  to 
the  demands  of  a  very  exhausting  occupa- 
tion?   

17.  Is  the  applicant  free  from  any  form  of  disease 

or  disability  which  is  likely  to  unfit  him  for 
the  performance  of  the  work  of  a  railway 
mail  clerk?  

18.  Are  you  a  regularly  licensed  physician,  and 

duly  authorized  by  the  laws  of  your  state  to 

practice  medicine  ?  

19.  Of  what  medical  institute  are  you  a  graduate?   


144 

The  person  examined  will  insert  in  the  blank  space  immediately 
below,  in  his  own  handwriting,  in  the  presence  of  the  examining  phy- 
sician, his  full  name  and  post  office  address. 

These  spaces  to  be  filled  out  by  the  applicant  in  his  own  hand- 
writing. 

(Full  name  of  applicant.) 


I  certify  that  I  have  made  a  thorough  examination  of  the  above 
named  applicant  for  the  railway  mail  service,  divested  of  all  his  cloth- 
ing, and  that  each  and  all  of  the  above  answers  are  in  my  own  hand- 
writing and  are  true. 

(Signature  of  physician.) 

( Post  office  address  of  physician.) 

Date, " 


This  certificate  has  been  enlarged  and  improved  somewhat  within 
the  last  two  or  three  years.  The  height  is  now  5  feet,  5  inches,  and  the 
weight  130  pounds,  etc.,  etc. 


In  operating  the  service  it  became  evident  that  the  controversies 
that  occurred,  from  time  to  time,  over  promotions,  and  not  infre- 
quently with  cause,  should  be  avoided  in  the  interest  of  harmony  in 
the  service.  To  do  this  it  was  necessary  to  satisfy  the  employees  that 
influence  and  favoritism  had  no  weight  in  making  promotions ;  that 
merit  governed  as  in  original  appointments  to  the  service.  The  suc- 
cess that  had  attended  these  selections  under  the  operations  of  the 
civil  service  laws  and  rules  suggested  the  practicability  of  applying 
similar  methods  to  promotions.  When  this  point  was  reached,  the 
General  Superintendent  called  in  consultation  a  number  of  division 
superintendents  and  constituted  them  a  committee  to  draft  a  set  of 
regulations  to  govern  promotions,  which  being  submitted  to  the  Civil 
Service  Commission  were  approved  and  formulated  by  it,  after  con- 
sultation with  the  Postmaster  General,  who  also  approved  and  promul- 
gated them  in  February,  1897,  under  this  title  and  caption,  viz: 


Hon.  Samuei^  W.  Gaines 

Superintendent  Eleventh  Division  R,  ISI.  S. 
(See  Appendix  I 


145 

CIVIL  SERVICE  REGULATIONS 
GOVERNING  PROMOTIONS 

IN  THE 

RAILWAY  MAIL  SERVICE. 
Approved  and  Promulgated 

BY  THE 

Postmaster  General 
February  6,  1897. 

In  pursuance  of  the  requirements  of  Section  VII  of  the  Civil 
Service  Act,  and  in  conformity  with  Civil  Service  Rule  XI,  promul- 
gated by  the  President  on  the  sixth  day  of  May,  1896,  the  following 
regulations  governing  promotions  in  the  railway  mail  service  have 
been  formulated  by  the  Civil  Service  Commission,  after  consultation 
with  the  Postmaster  General,  and  are  hereby  promulgated: 

Regulation  I. 

Proinotions. 

Section  892.  Board  of  Promotions.  The  General  Superintendent, 
the  Assistant  General  Superintendent,  and  the  Chief  Clerk  of  the  rail- 
way mail  service  shall  constitute  a  Board  of  Promotion,  subject  to  the 
provisions  of  Section  3  of  Civil  Service  Rule  XL 

Regulation  II. 
Classification. 

For  the  purpose  of  defining  the  order  of  promotion  under  these 
regulations,  the  officers  and  employees  shall  be  classified  as  follows : 

The  classification  up  to  and  including  class  4  shall  be  as  provided 
in  Section  890  of  the  Postal  Laws  and  Regulations  of  1893. 

Class  5  shall  include  clerks  receiving  salaries  of  $1,400  and  as- 
signed to  duty  as  chief  clerks,  chief  clerks  at  large,  chief  clerks  in 
charge  of  lines,  examiners,  scheme  clerks,  and  clerks  detailed  to  duty 
in  the  office  of  the  General  Superintendent. 

Class  6  shall  include  all  assistant  superintendents. 

Class  7  shall  include  the  Assistant  General  Superintendent,  Super- 
intendents of  Divisions,  and  the  Chief  Clerk  in  the  office  of  the  Gen- 
eral Superintendent. 

Class  8  shall  include  the  General  Superintendent. 


146 

Regulation  III. 

All  vacancies  above  those  in  the  lowest  class,  not  filled  by  rein- 
statement, transfer  or  reduction,  shall  be  filled  by  promotion :  Pro- 
vided, That  if  there  is  no  person  eligible  for  promotion,  or  if  the  vacant 
position  requires  the  exercise  of  technical  or  professional  knowledge, 
it  may  be  filled  through  certification  from  the  Civil  Service  Com- 
mission. 

2.  A  vacancy  in  any  class,  except  the  lowest,  up  to  and  including 
class  5,  shall  be  filled  by  the  promotion  of  an  eligible  from  the  next 
lower  class  of  the  same  railway  post  office.  When  a  vacancy  exists 
the  Board  of  Promotion  shall  certify  to  the  Postmaster  General  the 
names  of  the  highest  three  eligibles,  and  from  these  names  a  selection 
shall  be  made:  Provided,  That  if  there  shall  be  in  the  same  railway 
post  office  less  than  three  eligibles  in  the  class  next  below  that  in  which 
the  vacancy  exists  and  if  the  Postmaster  General  shall  require  a  full 
certification,  the  Board  of  Promotion  shall  certify,  in  addition,  as 
many  as  necessary  of  the  highest  eligibles  in  the  corresponding  class  of 
the  connecting  or  adjacent  railway  post  office  in  the  same  division, 
whose  clerks,  by  reason  of  the  character  of  the  mail  handled  therein, 
are,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Board,  best  qualified. 

3.  A  vacancy  in  any  class  except  the  lowest,  up  to  and  includ- 
ing class  5,  in  an  office  other  than  a  railway  post  office,  shall  be  filled 
by  the  promotion  of  an  eligible  from  the  next  lower  class  of  the  same 
office.  When  such  vacancy  exists  the  Board  of  Promotion  shall  certify 
to  the  Postmaster  General  the  names  of  the  highest  three  eligibles, 
and  from  these  names  a  selection  shall  be  made ;  Provided,  That  if 
there  shall  be  in  the  same  office  less  than  three  eligibles  in  the  class 
next  below  that  in  which  the  vacancy  exists,  and  if  the  Postmaster 
General  shall  require  a  full  certification,  the  Board  of  Promotion  shall 
certify,  in  addition,  as  many  as  necessary  of  the  highest  eligibles  in 
the  corresponding  class  of  the  railway  post  offices  in  the  same  division. 

4.  When  a  vacancy  exists  in  class  G,  the  Board  of  Promotion 
shall  certify  to  the  Postmaster  General  the  names  of  the  highest  three 
eligibles  in  class  5  in  the  division  in  which  the  vacancy  exists,  and  from 
these  names  the  Postmaster  General  shall  make  his  selection :  Pro- 
vided, That  if  there  shall  be  in  the  division  less  than  three  eligibles  in 
class  5  the  Board  of  Promotion  shall,  in  order  to  make  a  full  certifica- 
tion, certify  in  addition  as  many  as  necessary  of  the  highest  eligibles 
in  the  corresponding  class  in  the  other  divisions. 

5.  When  a  vacancy  exists  in  class  7,  the  Board  of  Promotion 
shall  certify  to  the  Postmaster  General  the  names  of  the  highest  three 


147 

eligible  in  class  G  in  the  division  in  which  the  vacancy  exists,  and 
from  these  names  the  Postmaster  General  shall  make  his  selection : 
Provided,  That  if  there  shall  be  in  the  division  less  than  three  eligibles 
in  class  6  the  Board  of  Promotion  shall,  in  order  to  make  a  full  certi- 
fication, certify  in  addition  as  many  as  necessary  of  the  highest  eli- 
gibles in  the  corresponding  class  in  the  other  divisions:  And  provided 
further,  That  if  the  duties  to  be  performed  in  the  vacant  position  be 
not  confined  to  any  division,  the  Board  of  Promotion  shall  certify  the 
three  eligibles  in  the  service  who,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Board,  are 
best  qualified  for  the  duties  to  be  performed  and  for  the  responsibili- 
ties of  the  ofiice.  Clerks  detailed  to  the  office  of  the  General  Superin- 
tendent shall  be  considered  for  promotion  in  the  divisions  from  which 
they  are  detailed. 

6.  When  a  vacancy  exists  in  class  8  the  Postmaster  General  shall 
promote  any  person  from  the  next  lower  class  whom  he  may  consider 
qualified. 

Re;gulation  IV. 

Bxanvinations. 

1.  No  clerk  below  class  5  shall  be  eligible  for  promotion  who 
has  not  passed  examination  on  the  states  or  cities  he  is  required  to  be 
examined  upon,  with  a  standing  of  95  per  cent,  or  better,  within  three 
years  next  preceding  the  date  of  vacancy ;  and  to  determine  his  eli- 
gibility his  last  examination  on  each  state  shall  alone  be  considered. 

2.  No  person  shall  be  promoted  by  detail  or  transfer  to  a  posi- 
tion which  may  be  filled  by  promotion  of  an  employee  who  is  eligible 
under  these  regulations. 

Regulation  V. 

Case  Examination  and  Car  Record. 

14.  The  case  examination  and  car  record  of  a  clerk  shall  consti- 
tute the  examination  for  promotion  to  any  position  in  a  railway  post 
ofiice.  No  re-examination  shall  be  required  for  promotion  to  higher 
positions,  eligibility  for  promotion  being  determined  by  the  Board  of 
Promotion  after  considering  such  qualities  as  judgment,  character, 
ability,  and  general  qualifications  of  the  person  competing.  Records 
of  efficiency  and  case  examinations  shall  be  made  in  such  a  manner 
and  on  such  forms  as  may  be  prescribed  by  the  Board  of  Promotion, 
after  consulting  with  the  Postmaster  General,  and  shall  embrace  the 
elements  which  are  essential  to  a  fair  and  accurate  determination  of 
relative  merit. 


148 

15.  When  in  the  opinion  of  the  Board  of  Promotion  the  quali- 
fications of  eligibles  are  practically  equal,  they  shall  be  certified  in  the 
order  of  their  appointment  to  the  class  and  line,  or  office,  to  which 
they  are  assigned. 

February  6,  1897. 

Since  the  above  regulations  were  promulgated,  changes  have  been 
made  to  accommodate  the  additional  classes  and  grades  that  were 
created,  and  to  eliminate  reiterations ;  intrinsically  it  remains  as  in  the 
beginning,  which  speaks  well  for  the  builders. 

RECOGNITION  OF  WORTH. 

The  fiscal  year  1892  was  eventful.  Among  the  improvements 
to  be  credited  to  it  not  the  least  is  the  authority  granted  the  Postmaster 
General  to  expend  not  exceeding  $20,000  in  reimbursing  Chief  Clerks 
for  the  actual  expenses  incurred,  not  exceeding  $3.00  per  diem,  when 
traveling  on  the  business  of  the  Department. 

This,  and  the  creation  of  class  6,  salary  $1,600  per  annum,  had 
been  strenuously  advocated  during  the  fourteen  years  immediately  pre- 
ceding this  authorization ;  nine  years  more  of  ceaseless  effort  was 
necessary  to  secure  the  creation  of  classes  6  and  7,  and  the  restoration 
of  the  maximum  salaries  of  classes  4  and  5,  viz. :  $1,200  and  $1,400 
per  annum,  respectively,  from  which  they  had  been  reduced  to  $1,150 
and  $1,300  in  1876.  This  reduction  followed  a  cut  down  of  the  force 
of  clerks  as  much  as  it  could  stand  without  seriously  impairing  the 
service,  and  was  made  to  meet  a  supposed  temporary  emergency,  but 
which,  unfortunately  for  those  most  interested,  continued  until  1900, 
twenty-four  years.  The  same  Congress,  Fifty-sixth,  at  its  second 
session,  raised  the  salary  of  division  superintendents  to  $2,700  and  of 
assistant  division  superintendents  to  $1,800,  with  traveling  expenses 
in  addition.  Provision  was  also  made  to  pay  legal  representatives  of 
clerks  killed  on  duty,  or  who  received  injuries  on  duty,  resulting  in 
death  within  a  year  thereof,  $1,000.  Section  962,  Postal  Laws  and 
Regulations  of  1893,  provided,  in  substance,  that  a  clerk  disabled  while 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duties,  as  such,  by  a  railroad  or  other  accident 
so  as  to  unfit  him  for  the  performance  of  his  duties  should  be  given  a 
leave  of  absence,  with  pay,  and  an  acting  clerk,  in  periods  of  not  ex- 
ceeding sixty  days  each,  and  not  exceeding  one  year  in  all,  and  that  a 
sworn  certificate  from  the  attending  physician  must  accompany  every 
application  for  additional  leave.  When  an  acting  clerk  was  employed 
he  was  paid  at  the  rate  of  $800  per  annum. 


149 

In  1899  provision  was  made  to  grant  clerks  employed  on  lines 
daily,  or  daily  except  Sunday,  an  annual  leave  of  fifteen  days  with  pay, 
the  Department  also  paying  the  substitute  who  kept  up  the  work. 

The  appropriation  for  the  fiscal  year  beginning  July  1,  1902,  and 
ended  June  30,  1903,  authorized  two  sub  classes,  5b  and  4b,  salaries 
$1,300  and  $1,100  respectively,  which  provided  for  the  promotion  of 
clerks  of  class  4a,  $1,200  per  annum,  running  in  full  railway  post  offices 
composed  of  more  than  one  car  to  a  train,  to  class  5b,  $1,300  per  an- 
num; assistant  chief  clerks  of  class  4a  also,  and  clerks  in  charge  on 
the  most  important  apartment  lines,  in  point  of  work,  from  class  3, 
$1,000  per  annum,  to  class  4a  and  4b,  salaries  $1,200  and  $1,100  per 
annum,  as  indicated  by  the  relative  value  of  the  lines.  The  salaries 
of  clerks  in  classes  2  and  3  in  full  railway  post  office  crews,  where 
four  or  more  clerks  ran  over  the  whole  length  of  the  line,  were  in- 
creased from  $900  and  $1,000  to  $1,000  and  $1,100  respectively. 

The  appropriation  act  for  the  fiscal  year  beginning  July  1,  1903, 
and  ended  June  30,  1904,  provided  for  an  increase  of  the  salaries  of 
the  following  named  officers : 

The  General  Superintendent  from  $3,500  to  $4,000. 

The  Assistant  General  Superintendent  from  $3,000  to  $3,500. 

Division  Superintendents  from  $2,700  to  $3,000,  and  clerks  in 
charge  in  full  railway  post  offices  composed  of  two  or  more  cars  were 
placed  in  class  fi,  now  class  5a,  and  their  salaries  increased  to  $1,500 
per  annum,  in  consideration  of  the  increased  supervision  and  respon- 
sibility the  additional  cars  and  correspondingly  enlarged  crews  and 
distribution  devolved  upon  them. 

In  my  annual  report  for  1903  attention  was  called  to  so  much  of 
section  1409,  Postal  Laws  and  Regulations,  as  reads :  "If  the  average 
daily  distance  run  is  less  than  100  and  not  less  than  90  miles,  the  clerk 
will  be  of  class  2,  at  $900  per  annum;  if  the  average  daily  distance 
run  is  less  than  90  and  more  than  80  miles,  the  clerk  will  be  of  class  2, 
and  the  salary  will  be  at  the  rate  of  $10  per  annum  for  each  mile  of  the 
daily  average  of  miles  run.  If  the  average  distance  run  daily  is  80 
miles  or  less,  the  clerk  will  be  of  class  1,  and  the  salary  will  be  $10 
per  annum  for  each  mile  of  the  daily  average  of  miles  run,"  and 
recommendation  was  made,  in  substance,  that  the  class  2,  clerks  making 
a  daily  average  of  more  than  90  and  less  than  100  miles,  be  paid  on  the 
same  basis  as  the  clerks  making  a  daily  average  of  90  miles  or  under; 
that  is,  $10  per  annum  for  each  mile  of  the  daily  average  of  miles  run ; 
if  he  averages  92  miles  his  salary  ought  to  be  $920 ;  if  95  miles,  it 
should  be  $950 ;  if  98  miles,  $980  per  annum.  This  recommendation 
was  renewed  in  1904  and  1906. 


150 

In  my  annual  reports  for  1903,  1904,  1905,  and  190G,  recommen- 
dation was  made  that  the  salary  of  the  Chief  Clerk  in  the  office  of  the 
General  Superintendent  be  advanced  to  $2,500  from  $2,000  per  an- 
num ;  in  the  two  last  that  the  salaries  of  Assistant  Division  Superin- 
tendents be  raised  from  $1,800  to  $2,000  per  annum,  and  in  the  one 
for  1906  that  Chief  Clerks  in  charge  of  lines  be  paid  $1,800  per  an- 
num in  lieu  of  $1,600. 

The  fact  that  all  these  were  persistently  recommended,  and  nearly 
all  won,  during  my  administration,  is  a  most  pleasant  recollection. 
The  phenomenal  growth  of  all  classes  of  mail ;  the  increase  of  labor, 
study,  responsibility,  and  hazard  well  known  to  me  through  observa- 
tion and  participation  while  engaged  in  the  different  classes  of  the 
service,  and  the  apparent  indifference  with  which  the  legislative  powers 
viewed  the  disparity  between  the  compensation  allowed,  and  the  work 
required,  inspired  me  with  the  determination  to  bring  about  a  more  just 
and  equitable  condition,  if  possible.  Only  the  highest  grade  of  work  was 
good  enough  for  the  people  and  the  officers  of  the  service,  and  in  my 
opinion  only  just  and  equitable  compensation,  sympathetic  and  appre- 
ciative treatment  was  good  enough  for  those  who  performed  it.  So 
my  best  efforts  and  thoughts  were  expended  during  all  the  years  I  was 
in  command  in  trying  to  bring  these  conditions  about  and  in  this  I  had 
the  harmonious  assistance  of  all  connected  with  the  service. 

CASUALTIES. 

In  the  go's  the  occupation  of  railway  mail  service  employees  was 
no  more  hazardous  than  that  of  those  engaged  in  many  other  callings; 
indeed,  I  believe  statistics,  if  obtainable,  would  show  that  the  lives 
and  limbs  of  those  employed  in  saw  mills,  lumber  camps,  mines,  quar- 
ries, in  the  construction  of  buildings,  and  on  steamboats  were  in 
greater  peril.  Train  schedules  were  then  slow  and  the  number  of 
trains  limited,  two  things  favoring  the  minimum  of  accidents.  As  the 
nation  grew  in  population  and  productiveness,  travel  increased  as  did 
the  volume  and  frequency  of  shipment  of  the  products  of  the  soil,  of 
live  stock  of  the  farm  and  ranges,  of  the  loom  and  manufactory;  pas- 
senger and  freight  train  service  was  increased  and  in  the  early  70's 
the  schedules  of  some  trains  were  expedited ;  but  the  growth  of  pop- 
ulation and  the  development  of  the  country  were  not  met  with  a  pro- 
portionate expansion  in  trackage  facilities,  and  as  year  succeeded  year, 
speed  continued  to  increase  as  did  train  service.  The  disparity  became 
more  pronounced  and  accidents,  collisions  and  burning  wrecks,  the 
natural  sequence,  followed,  in  which  the  railway  post  office  played  an 
active  part.     How  active  and  startling  I  did  not  know  until  after  my 


151 

last  promotion,  which  brought  me  in  touch  with  the  whole  country. 
By  that  time  track  improvements  were  under  full  headway,  double 
tracks  were  being  laid,  some  parallel  lines  had  been  built,  others  were 
in  course  of  construction,  and  trunk  lines  were  being  well  ballasted. 
The  country,  however,  was  developing  in  all  respects  faster  than  the 
transportation  service,  therefore  accidents  had  not  been  minimized. 
The  railway  post  office  continued  the  storm  center  between  the  "nether 
and  upper  millstone,"  and  it  was  frequently  crushed  to  splinters  and 
burned  to  ashes  and  the  brave  boys  inside  were  mangled  or  incinerated, 
killed  or  maimed  for  life.  These  are  evidences  of  the  hazardous  na- 
ture of  the  occupation  of  railway  postal  clerks. 

In  the  lamentable  accident  which  occurred  April  18,  1891,  at  Kip- 
ton,  Ohio,  on  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  Railway,  six 
postal  clerks  at  work  in  the  New  York  &  Chicago  railway  post  ofifice, 
were  killed,  a  seventh  being  injured.  Three  railway  postal  cars  were 
running  in  the  train ;  one  was  totally  demolished,  one  end  of  another 
was  crushed  in  and  the  third  was  damaged. 

An  accident  occurred  February  15,  1892,  near  Shreve,  Ohio,  a 
station  on  the  Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne  &  Chicago  Railroad,  in  which 
the  railway  post  office  car  was  crushed  and  totally  destroyed  by  fire ; 
the  bodies  of  four  of  the  clerks  at  work  in  it  were  incinerated,  noth- 
ing remaining  but  ashes. 

On  July  23,  1893,  an  accident  occurred  near  Queen  City,  on  the 
Texas  &  Pacific  Railroad ;  trains  5  and  6  carrying  the  Texarkana  & 
Laredo  railway  post  office  collided,  both  cars  being  telescoped,  and  three 
clerks  killed  and  the  fourth  so  seriously  injured  that  he  died  later. 

November  7,  1893,  Baltimore  &  Ohio  train  5,  to  which  the  Balti- 
more &  Pittsburg  railway  post  office  was  attached,  was  wrecked  in  a 
head-on  collision  with  a  cattle  train ;  two  clerks  were  instantly  killed 
and  two  seriously  injured. 

June  9,  1894,  Pittsburg  &  St.  Louis  railway  post  office,  on  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  train  20,  was  wrecked  near  Pocahontas,  111.,  and  was 
almost  destroyed;  seven  clerks  were  seriously  injured. 

September  11,  1895,  St.  Paul  &  Minot  railway  post  office,  on  Great 
Northern  Railroad,  trains  2  and  3,  met  in  a  head-on  collision  near 
Melby,  Minn. ;  both  cars  were  destroyed,  and  one  clerk  was  killed  and 
three  seriously  injured. 

October  24,  1895,  New  York  &  Pittsburg  railway  post  office,  train 
7,  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  ran  into  a  wrecked  freight  train  near  New- 
port, Pa.,  and  was  wrecked,  took  fire,  and  four  of  the  postal  cars, 
with  about  150,000  letters  and  25  to  30  tons  of  paper  mail  were 
entirely  destroyed.     Six  clerks  were  injured,  two  of  them  severely. 


152 

November  19,  1895,  New  York  &  Chicago  railway  post  office, 
train  6,  New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  Railroad,  was  wrecked 
near  Rome,  N.  Y.,  and  seven  clerks  injured,  two  seriously. 

January  4,  189C,  the  Grafton  &  Cincinnati  railway  post  office, 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railway,  collided  with  a  freight  train  standing  on 
a  siding  at  Schooley,  Ohio.  The  postal  car  was  demolished,  three  of 
the  clerks  were  seriously  injured,  one,  Mr.  J.  C.  Edgerton,  the  medal 
winner  of  1892,  Fifth  division,  died  fourteen  days  later. 

June  26,  1897,  the  St.  Louis,  Moberly  &  Kansas  City  railway  post 
office,  Wabash  Railroad,  train  6,  while  running  at  a  high  rate  of  speed 
struck  a  trestle,  which  had  been  undermined  by  a  heavy  and  continuous 
flood.  The  trestle  being  on  a  curve  moved  under  the  shock  of  the 
engine,  precipitating  the  entire  train  into  the  raging  flood  below.  All 
of  the  clerks,  five  in  number,  were  killed ;  there  was  no  way  of  telling 
definitely  what  amount  of  mail  was  lost.    • 

September  8,  1897,  Kansas  City  &  La  Junta  railway  post  office, 
Santa  Fe  Railroad,  trains  1  and  118,  collided  near  Emporia,  Kansas. 
Postal  car  on  train  1  was  demolished  and  burned,  together  with  the 
entire  mail;  mail  on  118  saved.  Two  clerks  were  killed,  three  seriously 
and  two  slightly  injured. 

April  15,  1898,  St.  Louis  &  Texarkana  railway  post  office.  Iron 
Mountain  Railroad,  train  54,  was  wrecked  at  St.  Louis,  Mo.  The  cars 
turned  over,  landed  on  their  roofs,  but  were  not  seriously  damaged. 
Seven  clerks  were  seriously  injured. 

August  8,  1898,  Boston,  Providence  &  New  York  railway  post 
office,  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  Railroad,  train  70,  was 
wrecked  at  Canton  Junction,  Mass. ;  cause  defective  switch.  Nine 
clerks  were  seriously  and  two  slightly  injured. 

February  6,  1899,  Port  Huron  &  Chicago  railway  post  office. 
Grand  Trunk  Railroad,  train  6,  was  run  into  by  train  1,  at  Imlay  City, 
Mich.  The  car  was  wrecked ;  two  clerks  were  killed,  one  seriously 
and  one  slightly  injured. 

March  5,  1899,  New  York  &  Chicago  railway  post  office,  New 
York  Central  &  Hudson  River,  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern 
Railroads,  train  10,  was  wrecked  at  Westfield,  N.  Y.,  in  a  collision. 
and  six  clerks  were  seriously  injured. 

June  5,  1899,  Chicago  &  Minneapolis  railway  post  office,  Chicago, 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad,  train  57,  was  wrecked  at  West  Salem, 
Wis.,  in  a  collision,  and  five  clerks  were  seriously  injured. 

August  1,  1899,  Chicago,  Cedar  Rapids  &  Council  Blufifs  railway 
post  office,  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railroad,  train  9,  was  derailed 


153 

near  Boone,  Iowa.  One  clerk  was  killed,  four  seriously  and  one 
slightly  injured. 

May  9,  1900,  Charleston  &  Jacksonville  railway  post  office,  C.  & 
S.  &  S.  F.  &  W.  Railroad,  train  36,  was  wrecked  in  collision  at  Har- 
deeville,  S.  C.     Two  clerks  were  seriously  and  three  slightly  injured. 

January  4,  1901,  Chicago  &  St.  Louis  railway  post  office,  Chicago 
&  Alton  Railroad,  train  4G,  was  derailed  at  Chicago ;  cause  defective 
switch.     Four  clerks  were  severely  injured. 

March  23,  1902,  Washington  &  Charlotte  railway  post  office, 
Southern  Railroad,  train  38,  was  wrecked  by  running  into  a  landslide 
near  Covesville,  Va.  Two  postal  cars  were  thrown  across  the  engine, 
broken  up  and  entirely  destroyed  by  fire,  together  with  all  the  mail. 
Nine  clerks  were  severely  injured. 

March  27,  1902,  New  York  &  Washington  railway  post  office, 
Pennsylvania  Railroad,  train  66,  was  wrecked  at  Edgemoor,  Del.,  by 
running  into  a  freight  train,  damaging  one  of  the  cars  and  severely 
injuring  four  clerks. 

July  25,  1902,  Pittsburg  &  St.  Louis  railway  post  office,  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad,  train  2,  was  wrecked  by  collision  with  a  runaway  coal 
car  at  Trebenis,  Ohio.  Two  clerks  were  killed  and  their  bodies  were 
consumed  by  fire ;  three  others  were  seriously  injured  and  burned. 
All  the  mail  was  destroyed. 

February  23,  1903,  Bufifalo  &  Cincinnati  railway  post  office.  Lake 
Shore  &  Big  Four  Railroads,  train  25,  collided  with  a  freight  train 
near  Berea,  Ohio.  The  postal  car  and  its  contents  were  destroyed  by 
fire.  Four  clerks  were  killed,  the  bodies  of  three  of  them  being  con- 
sumed with  the  wreck. 

April  23,  1903,  Washington  &  Greensboro  railway  post  office. 
Southern  Railroad,  train  38,  collided  with  a  freight  train  near  Durmid, 
Va.,  and  was  wrecked.  Two  of  the  postal  cars  were  destroyed  by  fire. 
Three  clerks  were  severely  injured. 

September  27,  1903,  Washington  &  Greensboro  railway  post  office, 
Southern  Railroad,  train  97,  was  wrecked  at  Danville,  Va.  Four  clerks 
were  instantly  killed,  one  died  later,  and  five  were  seriously  injured. 

March  8,  190-i,  Chattanooga  &  Meridian  railway  post  office,  A. 
&  G.  S.  R.  R.,  train  1,  was  wrecked  near  Kewanee,  Miss.  The  wreck 
was  consumed  by  fire ;  three  employees  were  killed  and  their  bodies 
incinerated. 

March  5,  1905,  St.  Paul  &  Spokane  railway  post  office,  train  3, 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  was  wrecked  near  Bearmouth,  Mont.  Chief 
Clerk  Wilcox  was  killed  and  Clerk  Stuart  seriously  injured. 


154 

May  6,  1905,  New  York  &  Washington  railway  post  office,  train 
53,  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  was  wrecked  near  Plainsboro,  N.  J.  Eleven 
clerks  were  injured. 

December  7,  1905,  Cheyenne  &  Pocatello  railway  post  office.  Union 
Pacific  &  Oregon  Short  Line  Railroad,  was  wrecked  near  Wilkins 
Station,  Wyo.  Three  clerks  were  killed  and  their  bodies  were  con- 
sumed with  the  wrecked  car. 

May  4,  1906,  New  York  &  Pittsburg  railway  post  office,  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad,  was  wrecked  at  Springfield  Junction,  Pa.,  and  four 
clerks  were  killed. 

The  above  extracts  from  my  annual  reports  exhibit  the  peril  con- 
fronting employees  of  the  railway  mail  service  when  on  duty  in  pos- 
tal cars,  but  a  more  forcible  demonstration  of  the  devastation  of  Hfe 
and  limb,  homes  and  firesides,  hopes  and  ambitions  inseparable  from 
this  vocation  is  presented  in  the  following  statement. 

From  1876  to  1905,  both  inclusive : 
The  number  of  accidents  to  trains  carrying  full  and  apartment 

postal  cars  was    9,355 

Number  of  clerks  killed  while  on  duty 207 

Number   seriously   injured    1,516 

Number  slightly  injured   8,764 

Total   5,280 

Up  to  the  commencement  of  my  administration  there  had  been 
1,796  accidents  in  which  53  clerks  were  killed,  482  injured  seriously, 
and  514  slightly.  The  following  year  (1891)  the  Kipton,  Ohio,  dis- 
aster occurred,  in  which  the  New  York  &  Chicago  railway  post  office 
was  wrecked,  and  clerks  F.  F.  Clement,  F.  J.  Nugent,  J.  J.  Bowerfield, 
James  McKinley,  Charles  Hamell  and  C.  L.  McDowell,  were  killed. 
A  few  months  later  a  more  horrible  disaster  occurred  at  Shreve,  Ohio, 
on  the  Pennsylvania  system,  in  which  a  car  of  the  Pittsburg  &  Chicago 
railway  post  office  was  wrecked  and  burned,  and  clerks  George  C. 
Mann,  J.  D.  Patterson,  D.  E.  Reese  and  H.  S.  Allen  were  killed,  their 
bodies  being  incinerated. 

I  had  long  felt  that  some  action  should  be  taken  by  the  Govern- 
m.ent  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  clerks  injured  on  duty,  and 
the  dependents  of  those  who  had  lost  their  lives  in  accidents  while  on 
duty.  Those  injured  had  been  provided  for  in  a  measure,  but  no  pro- 
vision had  been  made  for  the  widows  and  minor  children  of  those 
killed  on  duty ;  therefore  I  repeated  the  recommendation,  in  this  be- 
half, made  by  my  predecessor,  in  the  reports  of  1889  and  1890,  "That 


155 

the  Postmaster  General  be  authorized  to  use  the  funds  arising  from 
deductions  because  of  the  faihire  of  clerks  in  the  railway  mail  service 
to  perform  duty,  and  for  other  causes,  in  paying  to  the  widow  and 
minor  children  of  each  permanent  railway  postal  clerk  killed  while  on 
duty  the  sum  of  $1,000.  In  the  event  of  there  not  being  a  sufficient 
amount  arising  from  deductions  the  Postmaster  General  shall  be  au- 
thorized to  make  up  the  deficiency  from  the  regular  appropriation  for 
the  payment  of  railway  postal  clerks."  And  added  this  argument: 
"The  policy  which  obtains  of  providing  for  disabled,  infirm,  and  aged 
clerks  by  assigning  them  to  duty  on  routes  of  minor  importance  is 
dictated  by  philanthropy  and  is  worthy  of  mankind  ;  but  it  stands  as 
a  barrier  to  the  fullest  development  of  the  service.  These  lines  of 
minor  importance  are  simply  feeders  for  the  great  railway  post  offices 
that  span  the  country,  connecting  commercial  centers  with  each  other 
and  with  the  intermediate  territory  tributary  to  them.  Their  distribu- 
tion is  rudimentary  and  local  in  its  nature,  just  such  as  may  be  in- 
trusted to  new  appointees  with  the  certainty  that  the  minimum  instead 
of  the  maximum  of  bad  service  will  result  from  their  lack  of  knowl- 
edge of  the  work  devolving  upon  them.  These  lines  should  be  used 
as  kindergartens  and  common  schools,  through  which  the  new  ap- 
pointees should  pass,  and  from  which  they  should  graduate  with  honors 
before  being  assigned  to  duty  in  railway  post  offices  of  the  first  or 
second-class.  But  this  policy  cannot  be  enforced  so  long  as  the 
present  method  of  providing  for  the  disabled  and  infirm  is  continued, 
nor  can  the  service  as  a  whole  approach  the  maximum  of  usefulness 
until  all  probationers  begin  their  official  life  in  the  primary  department 
of  the  service;  but  this  cannot  be  done  if  that  department  is  filled  with 
the  worthy  class  of  clerks  who  have  been  disabled  in  accidents,  broken 
down  by  hard  work  on  important  lines,  or  become  incapacitated  for 
further  service  by  reason  of  old  age.  It,  therefore,  becomes  necessary 
to  consider  what  can  be  done  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  service 
without  ignoring  the  future  of  these  men.  *  *  *  *  jj^  j^y 
opinion  the  best  interests  of  the  service,  the  clerks,  and  the  public 
can  be  secured  by  such  legislation  as  will  create  a  law  to  be  known  as 

The  Railway  Mail  Service  Superannuation  Act. 

This  act  shall  provide  for  the  retirement  of  all  permanent  clerks 
on  one-third  or  one-half  pay  who  have  become  incapacitated  for  fur- 
ther service  by  reason  of  age,  injuries  received  while  on  duty  or  in- 
firmities not  attributable  to  vicious  habits.  The  fund  out  of  which  the 
clerks  so  retired  shall  be  paid  is  to  be  created  by  withholding  a  sum 
equal  to  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  per  annum  of  the  salary  paid  every 


156 

permanent  clerk  employed  in  the  service,  and  one  per  cent,  of  the  an- 
nuity paid  those  placed  upon  the  superannuated  list.  This  deduction 
would  be  slight  upon  each  individual,  but  would  in  the  aggregate  amount 
to  about  $31,000  per  annum,  and  as  but  little  of  it  would  be  drawn  from 
the  fund  thus  created  during  the  first  few  years  succeeding  the  passage 
of  the  act,  it  would,  by  accumulation,  reach  sufficient  proportions  to 
make  the  act  effective  as  fast  as  retirements  became  necessary.  That 
the  deduction  would  not  work  even  temporary  hardship  to  those  com- 
ing under  its  operations  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  would  amount  to 
but  50  cents  on  each  $100  paid  the  clerks  in  active  service  and  $1.00 
on  each  $100  paid  those  placed  upon  the  superannuated  list.  The 
details  of  the  plan  can  be  worked  into  a  bill  whenever  the  proper  time 
to  do  so  arrives." 

The  above  recommendation  was  renewed  in  the  annual  report  for 
the  fiscal  year  1892^,  under  the  caption : 

"Provision  in  Case  of  Injury." 

I  remarked  in  the  same  report: 

"Leaves  of  absence  with  pay  are  granted  to  railway  postal  clerks 
who  receive  injuries  in  railway  accidents  while  on  duty  which  inca- 
pacitate them  temporarily  or  permanently  for  service.  These  leaves 
cover  a  period  of  one  year,  unless  the  injured  recover  and  return  to 
duty  before  the  expiration  of  that  period.  If  the  disability  extends 
beyond  one  year  the  Department  is  compelled  under  existing  laws,  to 
retire  the  clerk  from  the  service.  This  regulation  is  a  good  one,  but 
does  not  meet  the  emergency  fully  and  fairly ;  it  does  not  do  full  jus- 
tice to  those  so  badly  injured  as  to  be  unable  to  resume  duty  at  the 
expiration  of  the  year  limit  or  who  may  never  be  able  to  perform  the 
labor  necessary  to  support  themselves  and  families.  This  office  believes 
that  the  Department  and  Congress  should  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  the  condition  of  the  family  of  a  clerk  so  badly  injured  as  to  be 
unable  to  contribute  to  its  support  permanently  is,  if  anything,  more 
deplorable  than  of  one  instantly  killed^  because  in  the  former  case 
the  family  must  not  only  support  itself,  but  must  provide  the  necessi- 
ties, such  as  food,  clothes,  medicine,  and  medical  attendance,  for  the 
disabled  head ;  the  positions  of  the  dependents  and  support  are  re- 
versed, the  load  carried  by  the  former  is  greater  than  the  one  that 
fell  upon  the  latter.  Special  provision  should  be  made  for  this  class 
and  it  is  therefore  respectfully  recommended  that  there  be  added  to 
the  appropriation  bill  a  specification,  as  follows : 


157 

"For  the  special  employment  of  clerks  who  have  been  permanently 
disabled  in  railway  accidents,  while  on  actual  duty,  and  who  were 
thereby  incapacitated  for  duty  in  railway  post  offices dollars. 

"Doubtless  an  appropriation  of  $20,000  per  annum  would  cover 
all  such  cases  for  many  years,  and  this  would  not  be  in  excess  of  the 
sum  now  paid  to  acting  clerks  employed  in  keeping  up  the  runs  of  the 
regular  clerks  disabled;  and  as  nearly  if  not  quite  all  incapacitated  for 
duty  in  cars  could  be  advantageously  employed  elsewhere  the  appro- 
priation could  not  be  regarded  as  a  civil  pension  fund. 

"The  records  of  this  office  show  that  for  the  fiscal  years  1889, 
1890,  and  1891,  it  became  necessary  to  employ  acting  clerks  to  keep  up 
the  runs  of  294  regular  clerks  who  were  disabled  while  on  duty.  Of 
these  only  12  were  unable  to  resume  their  regular  duties  before  or  at 
the  expiration  of  the  one  year  limit,  and  three  of  these  were  detailed  to 
positions  in  the  service  where  the  physically  perfect  man  is  not  an  ab- 
solute necessity  or  where  the  work  is  not  of  such  a  character  as  to  de- 
mand strong,  active,  healthy  men,  leaving  but  nine  for  the  three  years 
who  could  be  considered  as  having  been  permanently  incapacitated  for 
work  of  any  kind,  an  average  of  three  per  year;  and  it  is  not  known 
that  these  nine  could  not  have  performed  light  work  had  the  Depart- 
ment been  in  position  to  tender  it  to  them.  The  presumption  is  that 
they  could  have  done  so,  but  the  appropriations,  as  has  been  remarked 
elsewhere  in  this  report,  have  never  been  large  enough  to  permit  the 
employment  of  as  large  a  number  of  clerks  as  the  best  interests  of  the 
public  and  the  service  demanded ;  therefore,  none  of  it  could  be  ex- 
pended in  the  employment  of  clerks  where  a  pressing  necessity  for 
them  did  not  exist. 

"If  the  appropriation  bill  contained  the  definite  and  specific  item 
mentioned  the  Department  could  use  these  disabled  clerks  as  transfer 
clerks  at  points  of  sufficient  importance  to  warrant  the  employment  of 
such  an  officer,  but  not  sufficiently  so  to  justify  it  in  encroaching  upon 
a  limited  regular  appropriation  and  sacrificing  more  pressing  im- 
provements. They  could  be  used  in  division  supply  offices,  as  janitors 
of  dormitories,  as  watchmen,  and  where  competent  for  the  class  of 
work  required,  as  assistants  to  chief  clerks  and  as  additional  help  in 
the  offices  of  the  superintendents  whenever  such  additions  might  be- 
come necessary. 

"In  short,  no  difficulty  would  be  experienced  in  providing  posi- 
tions for  them  which  would  be  advantageous  to  the  service.  The  cases 
are  full  of  merit;  the  men  lose  their  limbs  and  health  in  the  Govern- 
ment service;  there  is  work  which  would  be  very  beneficial   to  the 


158 

service  that  they  can  perform,  and  the  work  would  keep  them  from 
destitution  and  want." 

The  following  bill  was  introduced  in  the  annual  report  for  1893 : 
"Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That,  beginning  with 
the  commencement  of  the  first  fiscal  year  after  the  approval  of  this 
act,  and  regularly  thereafter,  there  shall  be  withheld  from  the  salary 
of  every  person  employed  in  the  classified  railway  mail  service  by  any 
title  or  in  any  capacity  whatsoever,  except  those  not  paid  out  of  the 
appropriation  for  clerk  hire,  a  sum  equal  to  one  per  cent,  per  annum 
of  the  amount  of  his  salary,  as  fixed  by  the  Postmaster  General  in 
pursuance  to  law,  which  shall  constitute  a  fund  to  be  known  as 

'The  Railway  Mail  Service  Relief  Fund/ 

and  be  retained  in  the  Treasury  or  subtreasuries  of  the  United  States 
of  America  for  the  relief  of  injured  and  disabled  employees  of  said 
service.  For  convenience  of  disbursement  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury may  make  transfers  from  said  fund  to  any  National  Bank  desig- 
nated as  a  depository  of  public  moneys,  or  to  any  post  office  of  the 
first  or  second-class. 

"Section  2.  That  the  fund  provided  for  in  the  preceding  section 
shall  be  applied  to  the  relief  of  any  employee  referred  to  therein  who, 
in  the  said  service  and  in  the  line  of  duty,  shall  be  permanently  in- 
jured or  disabled  mentally  or  physically,  not  the  result  of  his  own 
vicious  habits,  so  as  to  incapacitate  him  for  the  performance  of  fur- 
ther duty  in  said  service.  If  said  injury  or  disability,  not  apparently 
permanent  when  received  or  incurred  shall  result  in  permanency  with- 
in two  years  thereafter,  the  relief  extended  by  this  act  shall  accrue  to 
him  from  and  after  the  ascertainment  of  that  fact. 

"Section  3.  That  there  shall  be  annually  paid  from  said  fund  to 
each  of  the  injured  and  disabled  employees  referred  to  in  the  last  pre- 
ceding section,  the  sum  named  below,  to  wit:  If  an  employee  of  the  first 
class,  three  hundred  and  sixty  dollars ;  if  of  the  second  class,  four 
hundred  and  ten  dollars;  if  of  the  the  third  class,  four  hundred  and 
sixty  dollars;  if  of  the  fourth  class,  five  hundred  and  twenty  dol- 
lars; if  of  the  fifth  class,  six  hundred  and  ten  dollars;  the  payment  in 
all  cases  to  be  made  at  such  intervals  as  the  Postmaster  General  may 
direct,  but  not  less  frequently  than  quarterly,  and  to  continue  during 
the  continuance  of  said  disability :  Provided,  That  no  payment  shall 
be  made  from  said  fund  until  the  commencement  of  the  second  fiscal 
year  after  the  approval  of  this  act,  nor  to  any  employee  for  injuries 


159 

received  or  disability  incurred  during  his  probationary  period  in  said 
service. 

"Section  4.  That  if  additional  classes  are  created  by  law,  the 
clerks  in  such  classes  shall  be  embraced  in  this  act,  and  their  pay,  after 
retirement,  shall  be  in  the  same  ratio  to  the  salary  of  the  class  in  which 
they  last  served  as  that  of  the  clerks  in  the  classes  named  in  the  third 
section  of  this  act;  Provided  also,  That  if  the  salary  of  any  class  em- 
braced in  this  act  is  decreased  or  increased  by  act  of  Congress  ap- 
proved, the  benefits  provided  in  this  act  shall  be  decreased  or  increased 
proportionately. 

"Section  5.  That  if  any  employee  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  this 
act  shall  be  killed  while  in  said  service  and  in  the  line  of  duty,  or  shall 
die  as  a  result  of  any  injury  received  or  a  disability  received  or  con- 
tracted in  said  service  and  in  the  line  of  duty,  within  one  year  from 
the  date  of  receiving  or  contracting  the  same,  leaving  a  widow  or  minor 
children  under  sixteen  years  of  age,  there  shall  be  paid  to  said  widow 
out  of  the  said  fund  a  sum  equal  to  one  year's  salary  of  such  employee 
in  the  class  in  which  he  last  served ;  or,  if  there  be  no  widow,  the  said 
sum  shall  be  paid  to  the  legitimate  child  or  children  of  such  employee 
under  the  age  specified. 

"Section  6.  That  any  employee  referred  to  herein  who,  not  having 
been  injured  or  disabled,  as  contemplated  by  the  provisions  of  this 
act,  may  after  twenty  years'  service,  continuous  or  otherwise,  be  re- 
tired, if  by  reason  of  age,  infirmity,  mental  or  physical,  he- becomes 
incapacitated  to  perform  further  satisfactory  service,  and  shall,  upon 
such  retirement,  be  paid  out  of  said  fund  during  the  remainder  of  his 
life  an  annual  sum  equal  to  that  fixed  in  the  third  section  of  this  act 
for  the  class  in  which  he  last  served. 

"Section  7.  That  it  is  hereby  made  the  duty  of  the  Postmaster 
General  to  provide  rules  and  regulations  for  the  enforcement  of  this 
act,  as  well  as  for  the  ascertainment  of  the  fact  of  any  alleged  injury 
referred  to  herein,  and  the  degree  of  such  injury  or  disability,  and  to 
designate  any  surgeon  conveniently  located  for  the  purpose,  at  the 
expense  of  the  applicant  for  relief  hereunder,  to  examine  the  applicant 
and  make  report  of  his  condition ;  and  the  decision  of  the  Postmaster 
General  as  to  the  fact  of  such  injury  or  disability,  and  the  degree 
thereof,  shall  be  final." 

This  bill,  with  the  most  earnest  pleas  I  could  make  in  favor  of  it, 
appeared  in  full,  or  was  referred  to,  in  all  the  annual  reports  from 
1893  to  1907.     The  bill  and  pleas  pictured  a  realization  of  the  dan- 


160 

gerous  and  wearing  nature  of  the  calling,  and,  to  some  extent,  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  future  of  the  men  and  their  loved  ones,  whether 
it  should  be  brightened  with  health,  happiness,  delightful  homes  and 
agreeable  friends,  or  be  darkened  with  the  anguish  of  broken  hearts. 
It  was  shown  repeatedly  that  the  calling  is  extra  hazardous ;  disastrous 
to  the  physical  man,  especially  to  the  nervous  and  muscular  systems ; 
exhaustive  to  the  mind  as  represented  in  the  intellectual  capacity  and 
grasp  of  memory ;  that  a  clerk's  maximum  usefulness  is  reached  after 
a  long  period  of  diligent  study,  which  is  never  permitted  to  wane 
until  that  period  has  been  passed  and  he  has  entered  upon  the  decline. 
It  was  shown  that  accidents,  which  strewed  wrecks  along  the  tracks, 
killed  comrades,  and  sent  others  to  hospitals  and  their  homes  to  be 
healed ;  clothed  wives  and  children  in  mourning,  whether  the  clerk 
participated  in  them  or  not,  had  a  tendency  to  shorten  the  span  of  life; 
that  according  to  the  most  comprehensive  conception  of  the  relative 
obligations  due  from  the  one  to  the  other,  our  Government,  knowing 
the  character  of  the  business  and  being  one  of  the  highly  civilized  and 
enlightened  nations,  ought  to  protect  the  future  of  men  who  place  their 
lives  in  jeopardy  if  need  be  every  time  they  enter  a  railroad  train  upon 
its  business  and  who  are  expected,  and  justly  so,  to  protect  its  mails 
from  bandits,  thieves,  fire  and  flood,  with  courage  and  energy. 

Other  Governments  provide  for  the  future  of  their  postal  em- 
ployees. Many  of  our  best  railroad  companies  and  banks,  as  well  as 
other  corporations,  long  ago  organized  pension  and  relief  systems  for 
the  benefit  of  all  their  employees,  officers  as  well  as  subordinates.  This 
in  itself  is  very  good  evidence  that  corporations  have  souls,  notwith- 
standing the  old  saying  that  they  have  none. 

If  these  other  governments  and  many  corporations  can  carry  on 
successfully  this  humane  work,  why  cannot  we  as  a  nation?  The 
means  to  do  it  are  contributed  under  the  rules  of  trade,  commerce,  and 
transportation,  by  the  people.  It  flows  into  the  treasury  of  each  con- 
cern in  exchange  for  something  each  does  for  them,  and  is  voted  out 
to  pay  indebtedness  of  all  kinds ;  some  to  pay  the  dividends  declared 
on  stock,  some  to  compensate  employees,  some  to  meet  losses,  and  last, 
but  not  least,  some  to  pension  those  old  and  faithful  employees  who 
after  long  service  have  been  found  physically  disqualified  for  further 
duty. 

In  addition,  some  corporations  join  with  the  employees  in  main- 
taining a  relief  fund  out  of  which  benefits  are  provided  members  in 
case  of  sickness,  disability,  superannuation  and  death. 

Will  any  worthy  citizen  say  that  our  own  country,  the  greatest  of 
all,  which  should  represent,  if  it  does  not,  the  heart  and  the  sense  of 


Hon.  Chari.es  W.  Vickery 

Superintendent  Third  Division  R.  M.  S. 
(vSee  Appendix) 


161 

equity  of  this  people,  cannot  or  will  not  be  as  considerate  of  the  well- 
being  of  its  employees  who  work  in  fields  of  imminent  peril,  as  these 
so-called  "soulless  corporations?"  Will  any  one  say  that  such  of  the 
servants  of  the  people  as  are  employed  on  the  firing  line  are  not  en- 
titled to  greater  protection  against  privation  and  want,  even  if  the 
line  is  filled  with  volunteers,  than  those  who  serve  in  quiet  places, 
exposed  to  no  unusual  dangers ;  who  live  and  die  according  to  nature's 
formula,  without  having  felt  the  heart  stand  still,  life's  blood  forsake 
its  reservoir  and  felt  the  shadow  of  the  beyond  pause  momentarily 
overhead  ? 

What  is  it  that  shortens  the  allotted  life  of  man  in  the  case  of 
such  physically  sound  men  as  the  railway  mail  service  absorbs?  Is  it 
not  the  natural  excitement  of  the  vocation,  its  encroachments  upon  the 
nervous  system,  the  wrenching  and  straining  of  the  muscles  and 
sinews,  the  bruising  of  the  body  and  limbs  and  the  breaking  of  bones? 
Look  back  in  these  pages  and  read.  Is  not  the  showing  appalling?  What 
must  be  the  effect  of  the  sight  and  recollection  of  those  wrecks  upon 
the  brave  boys  who  witnessed  them  and  are  exposed  to  like  experiences 
constantly?    Can  it  be  less  than  shocking? 

If  all  this  be  as  stated,  and  who  can  question  it,  why  should  our 
Government,  which  has  faltered  in  this  matter  nineteen  years  or  more, 
hesitate  longer?  Surely  with  its  matchless  resources  it  need  not  fear 
to  enter  upon  a  policy  so  distinctively  just,  humane  and  sound. 

During  all  the  time  that  these  relief  measures  were  being  advocated, 
equally  strenuous,  but  more  successful  efforts  were  being  made  to 
strengthen  our  railway  post  office  cars,  to  the  end  that  the  per  cent. 
of  fatalities  and  injuries  per  accident  might  be  reduced,  or  at  least 
kept  from  growing.  Notwithstanding  the  great  and  constant  increase 
of  speed  and  train  service  this  has  been  accomplished,  as  is  shown 
below. 

POSTAL  CAR  CONSTRUCTION. 

Previous  to  1867  full  railway  post  office  cars  were  unknown ;  the 
limited  service  had  by  rail  was  performed  in  small  apartments  par- 
titioned off  from  full  cars,  used  in  most  instances  almost  exclusively 
to  accommodate  other  business  of  the  companies.  Usually  cars  were 
divided  into  three  parts,  which  were  assigned  to  the  mail,  baggage  and 
express,  respectively — the  mail  being  frequently  limited  to  a  space 
not  exceeding  6^x7  feet,  and  in  some  instances  to  3x7  feet. 

In  the  beginning  of  transportation  of  mail  by  railroad,  it  was 
made  up  in  distributing  and  terminal  post  offices  and  dispatched  in 
closed  pouches  and  in  sacks  to  other  distributing  offices,  and  to  local 


163 

offices  in  charge  of  the  employee  of  the  railroad  designated  by  the 
company — as  is  the  case  now  on  lines  where  service  by  clerk  has  not 
been  established,  or  on  trains  of  important  routes  where  the  service 
by  clerk  does  not  furnish  all  the  mail  facilities  the  business  transacted 
along  the  route  and  its  tributaries  require.  But  when  the  need  of,  and 
demand  for  more  prompt  local  exchanges  became  manifest,  these 
same  offices  made  up  packages  of  letters  and  sacks  of  papers  for  the 
way  offices,  and  dispatched  them  to  the  designated  route,  which  was 
provided  with  a  mail  apartment  and  a  route  agent,  who  opened  the 
pouches,  assorted  the  packages  and  made  the  exchanges — the  packages 
and  papers  received  in  the  exchange  pouches  being  treated  in  like 
manner. 

It  has  been  stated — in  substance — that  these  apartments  were  not 
provided  with  letter  cases,  and  that  the  unwrapped  letters,  received 
from  the  exchange  local  offices,  were  generally  thrown  into  the  pouch 
loose  among  the  packages  and  papers,  and  that  as  the  train  ap- 
proached the  terminus  of  the  route,  the  accumulated  mass  of  undeliv- 
ered packages,  newspapers,  and  loose  letters  was  dumped  into  a  pouch 
and  sent  to  the  post  office  at  that  point,  or  to  the  nearest  distributing 
post  office.  It  is  not  doubted  that,  in  the  years  that  intervened  between 
1834,  the  year  the  mail  was  first  dispatched  by  rail,  and  1864,  the  year 
the  railway  post  office  was  introduced,  but  little  distribution,  even  of 
a  local  nature,  was  required  of  or  made  by  the  route  agents,  and  it  is 
known  that  the  nearer  our  retrospection  approaches  1834  the  more 
evident  it  becomes  that,  in  those  days,  it  was  not  necessary  that  a 
route  agent  should  be  an  intellectual  giant,  with  a  physique  boiling  over 
with  energy  and  endurance,  and  a  memory  like  that  of  the  daughter 
of  Uranus,  in  order  to  discharge  his  duties  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
people,  and  his  superiors,  and  I  apprehend  that  this  satisfaction  was 
not  due  to  the  excellence  of  the  service,  but  rather  to  absence  of  knowl- 
edge of  anything  better,  and  the  prosaic  life  people  lived  before  the 
Civil  War  roused  them — stirred  all  their  emotions  into  action. 

As  late  as  1874  apartment  cars  without  letter  cases  were  in  use 
on  the  Great  Western  Railway  in  Canada,  between  Toronto,  London, 
and  Windsor,  and  the  clerks  distributed  the  letters  loosely  into  boxes 
such  as  were  used  very  much  earlier,  in  this  country,  for  packages  and 
papers  exclusively.  I  rode  in  one  of  these  apartments  about  that  time 
on  the  return  trip  from  Toronto,  where  I  had  gone  to  confer  with 
Mr.  Sweetman  of  the  Canadian  postal  service  respecting  an  improve- 
ment in  the  distribution  and  dispatch  of  mail  passing  from  one  coun- 
try into  the  other,  and  witnessed  the  work  and  the  interior  arrange- 


163 

ment  of  the  apartment,  but  the  Canadian  service  has  changed  greatly 
since  those  days. 

It  is  evident  to  my  mind  that  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  ser- 
vice, v^hich  obtained  in  1834  and  later,  did  not  remain  unchanged 
down  to  1864;  it  could  not  have  remained  stationary  thirty  years  in 
any  civilized  country — the  route  agents  would  have  died  of  inertia, 
and  the  public  brain  would  have  become  mildewed  and  moth-eaten. 
Moreover,  the  Civil  War  came  upon  us  and  the  country  was  born 
again ;  the  immense  bodies  of  men  who  composed  our  armies  in  the 
field  were  always  anxious  about  their  home  folks — longing  to  hear 
from  them — and  the  home  folks  were  overwhelmed  with  greater 
anxiety  about  the  loved  ones  at  the  front,  who  were  in  actual  or  im- 
minent peril  at  all  times,  and  kept  the  paths  between  their  dwellings 
and  the  post  office  well  trodden,  carrying  letters  to  mail  and  hoping 
to  receive  answers  to  others  mailed  before.  And  so  an  ever  increasing 
correspondence  commenced  which  before  the  war  ended  assumed,  in 
connection  with  the  fast  growing  newspaper  and  business  mails,  gigan- 
tic proportions  for  those  days,  and  it  is  known  that  as  the  war  pro- 
gressed the  armies  increased  in  numbers  and  magnitude ;  the  area 
covered  by  their  operations  was  extended  and  they  moved  farther 
and  still  farther  from  the  original  lines  of  hostility — maintaining  con- 
nection with  them  only  because  of  the  important  points  they  offered 
for  the  establishment  of  depots  of  supplies.  Post  offices  of  long 
standing  were  in  operation  at  nearly  all  these  points  capable  of  caring 
for  all  the  postal  business — of  whatever  character — that  came  to  them 
during  the  years  the  fires  of  war  smouldered,  according  to  the  meth- 
ods and  the  laws  and  regulations  prescribed  by  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment and  Congress,  but  when  the  mails  passing  to  and  from  the 
armies  began  to  pour  into  them  for  treatment  preparatory  to  dispatch 
either  to  the  north  via  the  distributing  post  offices,  or  to  the  south  by 
military  methods  and  transportation,  made  up  as  direct  for  the  differ- 
ent commands  or  organizations  in  the  field,  all  the  offices  that  were 
utilized  were  quickly  filled  with  mail  from  cellar  to  garret;  they  were 
completely  blockaded — covered  up — and  calling  for  help,  in  which  the 
army  and  home  folks  joined. 

Every  one  who  can  read  or  hear,  knows  how  sensitive  President 
Lincoln  was  of  the  care  and  comfort  of  his  soldiers;  how  quickly  he 
responded  whenever  he  was  shown  that  he  could  lessen  their  burdens 
or  bring  a  bit  of  sunshine  into  their  lives ;  how  his  sympathy  went  out 
to  the  wives,  fathers,  mothers,  and  sweethearts  of  these  brave  men, 
who  had  put  all  these  behind  them,  to  follow  the  flag  in  its  day  of 


164 

peril,  and  knowing  this  we  know  with  what  matchless  energy  he  caused 
this  obstruction  to  communication  between  camp  and  home  to  be 
cleared  away ;  how  experts  from  such  offices  as  New  York  and  Chica- 
go and  the  force  of  special  agents  at  the  command  of  the  Postmaster 
General  were  employed  to  equip  these  border  offices  with  the  clerks 
and  fixtures  necessary  to  relieve  the  situation ;  that  they  not  only  did 
this,  but  also  investigated  the  entire  distributing  and  dispatching  fea- 
tures of  the  postal  service — strengthened  some  of  the  distributing 
post  offices  in  the  rear,  and  worked  heroically  to  systematize  and  im- 
prove the  intolerably  crude  and  inefficient  character  of  it  so  as  to 
meet  this  most  pressing  emergency,  not  only  at  the  front  but  in  the 
business  centers  of  the  east  and  middle  west  which  were  growing 
rapidly  and  becoming  active  in  all  trade  lines.  While  the  Department 
was  thus  engaged,  the  army  organized  an  auxiliary  system,  which — 
as  is  usual  with  anything  it  undertakes,  in  times  of  war,  was  well 
done,  and  was  very  effective. 

It  is  evident  that  the  route  agent  or  railway  mail  service  of 
those  days  was  not  passed  by  unnoticed ;  letter  cases  had  found  a 
place — a  small  one  to  be  sure — in  the  mail  apartments,  and  loose  let- 
ters for  local  offices  ceased  to  pass  through  the  hands  of  the  route 
agents  without  proper  handling — they  were  assorted  into  pigeon  holes 
and  delivered  with  the  made-up  mails  as  the  trains  stood  at  the  way 
stations.  These  were  late  letters  as  a  rule,  or  those  that  had  been  over- 
looked by  the  postmasters  of  these  way  offices  when  they  closed  their 
mails  for  the  train ;  even  when  this  was  broadened  out  so  as  to  embrace 
a  larger  per  cent,  of  the  local  mail,  it  did  not  include  the  distribution 
which  the  railway  post  office  has  made  famous  since  1864,  nor  was  it 
adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  Government  or  the  people,  but,  with  the 
means  available  and  the  light  given  those  in  authority,  it  was  the  best 
possible  then ;  so  that  it  is  not  strange  to  us  now  that  the  committee  of 
special  agents  that  met  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on  June  24  and  25,  1863 — 
by  order  of  the  Postmaster  General — to  consider  and  report  upon  the 
condition  of  this  feature  of  the  service,  should  have  reported  as  fol- 
lows, with  respect  to  the  work  of  the  route  agents : 

"It  is  believed  that  to  this  class  of  truly  useful  officers  more  than 
to  all  others,  if  we  except  the  application  of  steam  in  the  conveyance 
of  the  mail,  which  of  course  created  the  necessity  of  the  system  in 
question,  is  to  be  attributed  the  wonderful  imiprovement  in  the  mail 
accommodation  throughout  the  whole  country,  and  on  the  future  ser- 
vice of  these  officers  must  depend  in  a  great  measure  the  prosperity 
and  efficiency  of  our  postal  establishment.  The  amount  of  labor  they 
perform  and  the  degree  of  intelligence  exhibited,  especially  by  those 


165 

running  on  the  most  important  routes,  can  hardly  be  estimated  outside 
of  the  Department.  After  their  general  fadehty  to  their  official  trust  it 
may  be  mentioned  as  somewhat  remarkable  that  there  have  been  so 
few  cases  of  delinquency  or  dishonesty  among  them  up  to  the  present 
time." 

In  this  connection  it  is  worth  remembering  that  the  great  inno- 
vation which  appeared  above  the  postal  horizon,  a  year  later,  shedding 
the  light  of  progress  over  this  continent,  and  destined  to  dissipate  for- 
ever the  greatest  fault  of  our  postal  system  in  the  handling  of  mail — 
inefficiency — could  not  be  seen  by  the  committee,  though  it  was  com- 
posed of  some  of  the  brightest,  most  experienced  and  capable  officers 
then  in  the  postal  service,  some  of  whom  afterwards  became  prominent 
in  the  Post  Office  Department,  and  others  were  then  conspicuous  for 
real  ability  in  the  larger  post  offices.  They  were  of  that  class  of  men 
who  would  not  pass  such  a  glowing  eulogy  upon  these  officials  if  it 
had  not  appeared  to  them  merited,  in  comparison  with  the  conditions 
they  discovered  in  the  distributing  post  offices,  which  were  noted  for 
lack  of  system,  and  the  accumulation  of  mail,  which  for  that  reason 
remained  in  the  offices,  frecjuently  waiting  distribution  longer  than 
was  required  to  transport  it  to  destinations. 

My  experience  and  research  convince  me  that  on  the  best  lines, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fiO's,  the  service  was,  and  the  apartments  also, 
except  as  to  size,  about  as  it  was  on  the  route  from  Cedar  Rapids  to 
Boone,  Iowa,  in  the  early  part  of  1866,  when  my  service  as  a  route 
agent  began.  At  that  time  our  route  did  not  seem  to  be  under  the 
exclusive  jurisdiction  of  Mr.  Armstrong,  whose  headquarters  were  then 
in  Chicago,  for  there  was  direct  correspondence  between  the  Depart- 
ment and  those  employed  on  it.  Special  agents  visited  us  occasionally, 
giving  us  the  benefit  of  the  knowledge  they  acquired  in  their  intercourse 
with  postal  employees  on  other  routes  and  in  post  offices,  and  the 
terminal  postmasters  gave  us  a  few  words  of  wisdom  whenever  they 
could  separate  themselves  from  them. 

I  am  under  the  impression  that  Mr.  Armstrong's  attention  was 
devoted  to  his  grand  scheme  and  to  the  routes  upon  which  it  had  been 
or  was  about  to  be  introduced,  but  early  that  fall,  our  route  was  ex- 
tended east  to  Clinton,  Iowa,  its  designation  changed  to  Clinton  & 
Boone  R.  P.  O.,  and  we  then  passed  under  his  exclusive  jurisdiction, 
but  during  the  entire  life  of  that  designation  we  occupied  those  apart- 
ments, notwithstanding  the  character  of  our  work  became  national 
instead  of  local,  and  they  answered  the  purpose  well,  though  this 
series  of  articles  shows  that  the  strength  of  their  construction  was 
tested  quite  severely  for  those  times. 


166 

It  slioukl  be  remembered  that  collisions  were  almost  unknown 
then  ;  this  was  because  the  traffic  was  light — so  light  that  one  train 
each  way  daily,  except  Sundays,  accommodated  both  the  through  and 
way  passenger  business  of  most  lines — the  freight  in  many  cases  not 
justifying  an  equal  number — none  were  run  at  a  high  rate  of  speed 
and  though  none  of  the  companies  had  commenced  to  double-track 
their  lines,  employment  on  railroad  trains  was  not  regarded  as  more 
hazardous  than  any  other  occupation.  It  was  not  until  the  70's  that  it 
began  to  be  so  regarded — a  change  due  to  the  rapid  increase  of  our 
population,  the  development  of  the  fertile  lands  of  the  west  into  pro- 
ductive farms,  which  created  business  of  sufficient  magnitude  to  draw 
into  centers  of  every  large  farming  community  representatives  of  the 
professions,  mercantile  pursuits,  and  trades,  and  their  concomitants, 
who  built  up  small  towns  and  commenced  to  buy  and  sell;  these 
towns  either  became  larger  with  the  passing  of  time  or  languished  and 
died ;  usually  they  lived  and  grew  spasmodically ;  whenever  they  out- 
grew the  surrounding  country,  upon  which  they  lived  and  thrived  or 
failed,  they  stood  still  until  the  country  caught  up  and  passed  them — 
then  they  awoke  from  their  lethargy  and  made  another  spurt,  but  the 
general  trend  was  upward.  When  we  consider  that  corn  sold  for  ten 
cents  a  bushel,  eggs  for  three  cents  a  dozen  and  all  other  products  of 
the  soil  in  proportion,  because  none  but  local  markets  were  available, 
on  account  of  remoteness  from  railroad  and  water  routes,  we  can 
understand  how  anxious  the  farmer  was  to  have  one  of  these  "darned 
critters"  come  to  his  town,  and  how  anxious  the  "critter"  was  to  get 
there,  provided,  the  town,  county,  state^,  or  general  government  would 
lend  a  helping  hand,  and  one  of  them  usually  did.  It  was  a  mutual 
arrangement  which  was  probably  the  immediate  salvation  of  both 
parties,  and  assisted  very  materially  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  nation. 

This  increase  of  population,  and  development  of  our  resources, 
started  an  era  of  activity  and  prosperity  in  which  railway  building  was 
a  prime  factor.  Travel  increased  so  largely  on  this  account,  and  the 
opening  of  the  first  trans-continental  line,  that  very  early  in  the  70's 
the  demand  for  quicker  transit  from  place  to  place,  and  especially 
from  one  important  center  to  another,  was  heard  in  the  land,  and  the 
companies  relegated  the  old  train  to  the  local  or  accommodation 
passenger  business  and  put  on  express  trains  some  times  known  as 
"Thunderbolt,"  "Lightning  Express,"  "Gee  Whizz,"  etc.,  and  then 
strenuous  efforts  were  made  by  the  officers  of  the  railway  mail  service 
to  secure  a  place  on  these  trains  for  the  railway  post  office  car;  these 
were  eminently  successful  in  the  west,  the  managers  of  the  roads 
yielding  to  our  wishes  cheerfully. 


Interior  and  Exterior  Viem^s  First  Railway  Post  Office  Car 


167 

The  first  full  railway  post  office  cars  were  built  by  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  Railroad  in  1867,  on  plans  provided  by  Mr.  Armstrong, 
and  were  placed  in  service  between  Chicago,  111.,  and  Clinton,  Iowa,  in 
March,  of  that  year,  and  between  Boone  and  Council  Blufifs,  Iowa,  in 
September  of  the  same  year.  These  cars,  with  the  exception  of  the 
nails,  screws,  bolts,  rods,  brakes,  trucks,  locks  and  hinges,  used  in  their 
construction,  were  built  of  lumber.  Car  building  has  become  an  art 
since,  and  some  of  the  best  specimens  are  dreams  of  the  mechanical 
engineer's  ideas,  of  symmetry,  strength,  and  beauty,  executed  under 
his  eye  by  his  most  skilled  workmen.  Look  at  a  first-class  postal  car, 
or  a  train  of  them  standing  on  a  track,  coupled  to  an  engine  similar 
to  Pennsylvania  engine  No.  2999,  with  a  maximum  speed  of  eighty 
miles  an  hour,  built  according  to  the  specifications  of  Department 
Plan  No.  1,  issued  May  1,  190i,  or  Pennsylvania  Plan  "Mm,"  which 
is  essentially  the  same,  and  weighs  106,000  pounds — 48,000  more  than 
the  best  postal  cars  constructed  prior  to  1891,  and  28,200  more  than 
those  built  between  that  year  and  1904,  or  "M-70," — Pennsylvania  all- 
steel  cars,  weighing  130,000  pounds,  24,000  more  than  those  built 
according  to  Department  Plan  No.  1,  and  6,000  more  than  the  splen- 
did steel  cars  of  the  Erie  R.  R.  Company,  built  by  the  Standard  Steel 
Car  Company  in  1904 — and  tell  me  if  you  ever  saw  anything — animate 
or  inanimate — that  could  speed  faster,  that  looked  more  like  it,  or 
more  graceful  when  in  motion ;  if  you  do  not  know  sit  on  some  grass- 
covered  knoll  overlooking  a  track  laid  through  a  level  valley  and  up 
a  mountain  side  and  watch  a  passenger  train  approach  your  position, 
pass  on,  ascend  the  incline  and  move  out  of  range  of  your  vision,  and 
you  will  witness  the  personification  of  grace,  gentleness,  submission, 
power,  resolution,  energy,  destruction. 

The  first  postal  cars  were  well  built,  but  they  were  not  as  sym- 
metrical or  highly  finished,  inside  or  out,  strong  or  convenient  as  they 
have  since  become,  but  the  change  has  come  step  by  step,  just  as  the 
development  of  everything  man  uses  has,  as  the  country  has,  as  the 
postal  business  has,  as  civilization  has ;  it  is  evolution  pure  and  simple. 
What  is  necessary  now  would  have  been  extravagant  then  from  every 
standpoint. 

These  cars  were  forty  feet  long  and  full  width ;  they  were  with- 
out end  doors,  but  had  two  windows,  and  upper  deck  lights,  on  either 
side.  The  case  to  accommodate  paper  distribution  was  built  in  one 
end  of  the  car,  somewhat  semi-circular  in  form,  and  consisted  of 
four  rows  of  thirteen  boxes  each — dimensions  10x12  inches  front — 
rising  one  above  the  other  from  the  opening  table,  upon  which  the 


168 

sacks  and  pouches  were  emptied,  to  the  rafters  of  the  lower  deck;  each 
case  was  provided  with  two  inferior  oil  lamps  and  two  or  three 
drawers. 

The  letter  case  consisted  of  three  sections,  with  a  capacity  of 
seventy-seven  pigeon  holes  each,  put  together  in  angular  form ;  the 
front  of  the  bottom  of  these  was  five  or  six  inches  above  the  table, 
which  began  with  the  left  wing  of  the  case  and  following  its  contour 
extended  to  about  two  feet  beyond  the  right  wing  and  was  about  eighteen 
inches  or  two  feet  wide ;  the  pigeon  holes  sloped  back  at  an  angle  of 
about  forty-five  degrees ;  the  extreme  limit  of  the  left  wing  rested 
against  the  inside  wall  of  the  car  and  the  end  of  the  right  wing  against 
a  partition  which  formed  one  side  of  an  alley  extending  from  the 
space  allotted  to  the  cases  back  of  the  storage  end  of  the  car,  in  which 
the  mail  was  assorted  in  bulk  and  piled  as  it  was  loaded  into  the  car, 
and  from  which  that  requiring  distribution  was  taken  to  the  cases, 
and  some  of  it  back  after  this  was  made ;  that  for  local  offices  and  en 
route  connections  was  usually  delivered  from  the  side  doors  of  the 
work  room.  The  letter  case,  like  the  paper  case,  was  provided  with 
two  oil  lamps  and  some  drawers ;  the  storage  room  had  one  lamp  and 
the  car  was  furnished  with  a  chair,  stove,  lounge,  wood  box,  ice  cooler 
and  other  necessities. 

Not  much  change  occurred  in  the  structure  of  postal  cars  for 
many  years  after  these  were  built,  nor  in  the  interior  arrangement, 
except  that  the  positions  of  the  letter  and  paper  cases  were  reversed — 
the  letter  case  being  built  in  one  end  of  the  car  and  the  paper  case  in 
the  center ;  this  was  more  convenient  for  the  clerks  and  economized 
time  and  labor,  as  it  brought  the  storage  room  next  to  the  paper  case, 
upon  the  table  of  which  all  the  pouches  and  sacks  were  opened  and 
closed,  and  from  which  the  great  bulk  of  mail,  second,  third  and  fourth 
class  matter,  and  the  made-up  packages  of  first-class  was  distributed, 
into  the  boxes  and  sacks ;  it  was  no  longer  carried  or  dragged  to  and 
fro  across  the  open  space  between  the  two  cases. 

In  1874  wooden  racks  were  substituted  for  the  circular  cases  in 
use  in  the  cars  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  railway  between 
Chicago  and  Council  Blufif s ;  the  idea  originated  with  the  undersigned 
and  was  worked  out  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Troy — then  a  clerk 
in  my  office  in  Chicago — and  the  master  car  builder  of  the  C,  B.  & 
Q.  R.  R.,  and  was  a  success  from  the  beginning. 

The  racks  occupied  the  central  portion  of  the  cars — just  as  the 
"Harrison  Bag  Rack"  does  now — and  consisted  of  three  or  four  sec- 
tions, as  the  case  might  be — each  six  feet  long  by  four  and  a  half  feet 


169 

deep,  making,  when  set  up,  a  continuous  rack,  running  lengthwise  of 
the  car,  eighteen  or  twenty- four  feet  long  and  four  and  a  half  deep, 
capable  of  accommodating  four  tiers  of  sacks  hanging  open  mouthed 
on  four  hooks  set  a  foot  apart  each  way,  the  capacity  of  the  rack  be- 
ing either  seventy-two  or  ninety-six  separations. 

The  construction  of  the  rack  was  as  follows: — If  eighteen  feet 
long,  twenty  stanchions  with  slots  in  upper  end,  reinforced  with  steel 
or  iron,  were  fastened  to  the  floor  of  the  car  six  feet  apart  one  way 
and  a  foot  the  other;  if  twenty-four  feet  long,  twenty-five  stanchions 
were  required.  Fifteen  bars  of  well  seasoned  wood,  each  G  feet  long, 
7  inches  wide,  1  inch  thick,  were  provided,  if  the  rack  was  to  be 
eighteen  feet  long;  if  twenty-four  feet,  twenty  were  required;  if 
eighteen  feet,  twelve  bars  were  furnished  with  hooks  on  both  sides, 
those  on  the  side  facing  the  clerk  were  near  the  lower  edge  of  the  bars 
— those  on  the  opposite  side  were  near  the  upper  edge. 

The  first  tier  of  sacks  rested  on  the  floor  of  the  car,  the  first  bars 
being  placed  just  high  enough  to  permit  the  sacks  to  hang  easily  on  the 
hooks  when  full,  each  succeeding  tier  was  about  four  inches  higher 
than  the  preceding  one,  and  the  floor  was  raised  correspondingly.  A 
table  upon  which  the  mail  was  emptied,  and  the  pouches  opened  and 
closed,  was  set  into  the  rack,  and  some  overhead  boxes  and  a  row  of 
hooks  fastened  to  the  inside  wall  of  the  car,  back  of  the  clerk  standing 
at  the  rack,  added  to  the  capacity  of  the  car  for  distribution  purposes. 
German  student  lamps  had  been  substituted  for  the  old  oil  lamps, 
which  was  a  marked  improvement,  as  was  the  rack,  over  any  previous 
interior  fixtures  or  furnishings. 

In  closing  out  the  rack  the  first  tier  of  sacks  was  removed  first 
and  that  row  of  bars  taken  down ;  the  succeeding  tiers  were  disposed 
of  in  like  manner  and  in  regular  order ;  the  rack  was  dressed  as  the 
bars  were  replaced,  beginning  with  the  fourth  tier  and  working  to  the 
front. 

The  clerks  soon  learned  the  sacks  that  were  filled  and  tied  out 
most  often,  and  hung  them  in  the  first  tier  and  at  the  end  of  the  rack, 
so  that  they  could  be  removed  and  replaced  with  the  minimum  of  in- 
convenience and  delay  to  distribution. 

The  Seventh  Division  was  cut  out  of  the  Sixth  in  the  closing  days 
of  1874,  and  Mr.  Walter  L.  Hunt,  my  crew  mate  of  1809  and  1870  in 
the  Chicago  &  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.,  and  later  chief  clerk  of  the  service 
under  Mr.  Bangs,  was  appointed  superintendent  of  it,  and  filled  the 
office  with  credit  many  years. 

Some  time  after  our  wooden  rack  had  demonstrated  its  superiority 
over  the  circular  case,  I  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Hunt,  saving  he 


170 

had  placed  an  iron  rack  made  of  gas  pipe  in  the  St.  Louis  &  Kansas 
City  R.  P.  O.,  and  invited  me  to  come  down  and  see  it.  I  accepted, 
and  accompanied  by  Charles  R.  Harrison  of  our  service — who  was 
becoming  very  much  interested  in  the  subject  of  bag  racks — visited 
St.  Louis,  without  much  delay,  and  with  our  host  we  examined  the  rack 
carefully. 

It  was  well  put  up ;  the  upper  surface  was  level,  and  I  remember 
it  as  being  stationary — not  constructed  to  close  down  when  not  in 
use.  In  both  these  respects  it  was  inferior  to  the  wooden  rack;  the 
rise  of  one  tier  four  or  five  inches  above  the  next  made  it  easier  to 
locate  the  position  of  each  sack  in  the  wooden  rack  in  one's  mind  and 
prevented  mail  intended  for  sacks  in  one  tier,  gliding  over  into  those 
in  the  next  tier,  if  thrown  a  little  high,  thus  compelling  loss  of  time  in 
correcting  the  accidents,  also  preventing  delay  to  such  mail  and  its 
being  charged  as  errors  against  the  clerks  who  distributed  it.  The 
two  racks  suggested  the  material  and  form,  or  general  plan,  of  what 
was  afterwards  known  as  the  Harrison  bag  rack,  and  that  form  or 
principle  is  still  perpetuated,  though  the  whole  of  the  wooden  rack 
was  in  front  of  the  distributers,  whereas  the  Harrison  bag  rack  has 
two  tiers  on  either  side  of  the  car  which  are  suplemented  by  portable 
links  that  may  be  used  to  increase  the  capacity  of  the  rack  whenever 
the  schemes  call  for  a  larger  number  of  separations  than  the  regular 
folding  racks  and  the  overhead  boxes  will  accommodate.  When 
in  use,  one  end  is  hooked  onto  the  rack,  the  other  end  clutches  the  iron 
rod  running  lengthwise  of  the  car  the  full  length  of  the  racks.  This 
rack  has  been  improved  from  time  to  time  and  is  now  in  almost  uni- 
versal use. 

Two  paper  cases,  thought  by  some  to  be  improvements,  were 
introduced  during  this  period,  but  became  obsolete  long  since. 

Changes  have  been  made  in  letter  cases,  but  the  angular  form 
has  been  maintained — though  one  wing  almost  always  extends  along 
the  side  of  the  car  for  a  considerable  distance,  the  greatest  change  is 
the  reversible  sections,  which  minimize  negligence  and  insure  cleanli- 
ness. The  racks  in  which  are  usually  hung  the  pouches  to  accommo- 
date the  made-up  letter  mail  are,  in  most  cases,  placed  directly  opposite 
the  long  section  and  are  convenient. 

Early  in  my  experience  as  superintendent  of  the  Fourth — now 
Sixth  division — when  the  first-class  matter  distributed  in  the  Chicago 
&  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.  was  quite  heavy,  even  for  those  days,  the  gen- 
eral manager  of  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  R.  R.,  on  my  re- 
quest, caused  a  letter  case  to  be  built  in  each  of  the  cars  of  that  route 
on  the  following  plan : 


171 

The  case  was  built  lengthwise  of  the  car  down  the  center  of  one 
end  of  it,  and  faced  both  ways;  it  was  composed  of  three  sections,  in 
the  angular  form,  on  each  side — the  center  section  being  much  longer 
than  the  wing  sections — and  under  it  were  openings  through  which 
letters  intended  for  one  clerk  but  received  by  the  other  were  trans- 
ferred ;  there  was  also  a  smaller  triangular  case  in  the  end  of  the 
double  case  fronting  the  paper  case ;  in  this  the  center  section,  while 
of  full  height,  was  very  narrow  and  the  wings  were  also  wings  of  the 
main  case.  This  case  was  satisfactory  on  that  particular  route  at  the 
time  it  was  built,  but  conditions  changed ;  so  large  a  letter  case  became 
unnecessary  and  was  removed  and  the  angular  end  case  restored. 

During  all  this  time  great  interest  was  manifested,  in  improving 
the  interior  fixtures  of  the  cars,  by  the  officers  and  clerks  of  the  ser- 
vice, and  in  locating  them  to  the  best  advantage.  The  fact  that  the 
angular  reversible  letter  case,  the  Harrison  bag  rack,  steam  heat  from 
the  engine,  supplemented  with  the  Baker  heater  and  stoves ;  electricity 
and  compressed  gas,  supplemented  with  improved  oil  lamps  for  illu- 
minating purposes,  all  of  which  have  not  been  displaced,  certainly 
shows  that  no  mistake  was  made  in  adopting  them,  but  up  to  the  clos- 
ing months  of  1891,  the  companies  were  permitted  to  set  up  the  frames 
of  postal  cars  according  to  the  plans  and  specifications  used  in  building 
coaches — thus  overlooking  the  fact  that  because  of  their  assignment 
in  trains  they  occupied  the  most  hazardous  position ;  that  in  head-end 
collisions  they  were  likely  to  be  crushed  like  egg  shells,  or  to  be  broken 
up  in  derailments,  and  in  rolling  down  embankments — the  other  cars 
piling  on  top  of  them. 

The  awful  disaster  at  Kipton,  Ohio,  in  which  six  of  our  clerks 
were  killed,  forced  the  conviction  that  I  could  not  escape  responsi- 
bility for  such  losses  thereafter,  if  I  did  not  utilize  all  the  authority 
vested  in  my  office  to  prevent  them,  and  I  appointed  a  committee  of 
three  superintendents,  Burt,  Troy  and  Pepper,  to  formulate  specifica- 
tions for  framing  postal  cars,  and  instructed  the  committee  to  confer 
with  the  master  car  builders  of  some  of  the  most  important  trunk  lines 
with  a  view  of  securing  suggestions  from  these  experts  as  to  the  best 
method  of  strengthening  the  construction.  The  committee  performed 
the  work  assigned  them  well  and  made  their  report  under  date  of 
September  22,  1891. 

The  framing  specifications  submitted  with  the  report  provided 
that  :— 

"The  side  sills  be  composed  of  two  pieces  of  lumber,  each  4x8 
inches,  with  a  plate  of  iron  ^x8  inches  between,  bolted  together  firmly, 


172 

the  plate  bent  around,  forming  an  angle  against  the  end  sills,  which 
were  to  be  of  white  oak  8x8  inches,  reinforced  on  bottom  with  iron 
plates  -|x8  inches ;  the  center  sill  5x8  inches,  plated  with  |x8  inch  iron 
bent  around  so  as  to  form  angle  against  end  sill ;  it  also  provided  for 
ten  longitudinal  sills  of  long  leaf  southern  yellow  pine  thoroughly  sea- 
soned, instead  of  six  or  eight,  as  had  been  the  practice  previously. 

End  plates,  24  inches  thick,  with  iron  plates  §x6  inches  on  inner 
side  at  bottom ;  plate  turned  into  angle  at  end  against  side  plates. 

Body  bolsters. — Double  top  and  bottom  plates  6x1  inch  each. 

Studding. — 2^x2|  inches,  placed  about  18  inches  center  to  center. 
First  and  third  posts  from  end  of  car  plated  on  both  sides  with  ^x2f 
inch  iron.  All  corner  and  end  posts  plated  with  |  inch  iron  full  height 
and  width,  with  ends  turned  into  angles  against  end  plate  and  end  sill. 

Carlines. — Nine  iron  carlines  fx2  inches,  following  the  contour 
of  upper  and  lower  deck. 

Truss  rods. — Two  truss  rods,  1^  inches  in  diameter,  with  If  inch 
ends,  and  connected  in  center  with  turnbuckle. 

Platforms. — Whether  Miller  or  Janney,  are  to  be  put  up  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  established  standards,  and  in  addition  thereto  the 
platform  timbers  are  to  be  plated  both  sides  with  -|  inch  iron  the  full 
depth  of  the  timbers,  and  draft  timbers  are  to  be  plated  in  the  same 
manner  with  f  inch  iron. 

Trucks. — Axles  should  not  be  smaller  than  the  1891  M.  C.  B. 
standard  for  thirty  ton  cars,  with  bearings  and  oil  boxes  in  proportion. 
There  should  be  safety  straps  under  the  spring  plank  and  brake  beams. 
Wheel  pieces  should  be  plated  on  both  sides  with  f  inch  iron.  There 
should  be  six  wheels — steel  tired  preferred — to  each  truck,  v/ith  a 
wheel  spread  not  less  than  ten  feet.  Side  bearings  should  be  of  a 
section  not  less  than  2x3  inches.  Equalizing  bars  2x4|  inches,  made 
of  the  best  hammered  scrap. 

Brakes. — Air  and  automatic,  latest  improved  form  of  application." 

The  specifications  show  other  items  which  contributed  to  the 
strength  of  the  cars  built  between  1891  and  1904,  but  I  have  not  men- 
tioned them,  because  it  is  the  intention  to  call  attention  only  to  those 
which  were  wrought  through  the  application  of  iron  plates  to  the  tim- 
bers and  angles  that  were  subject  to  the  greatest  strain  at  all  times, 
and  to  the  hardest  blows  and  greatest  concussion  in  derailments  and 
collisions,  to  the  running  gear,  and  brakes. 

To  these  improvements  was  due  almost  wholly  the  fact  that  cars 
built  as  the  specifications  provided  weighed  19,800  pounds  more  than 
those  previously  provided  by  the  companies. 


173 

My  object  in  reproducing  here  so  much  of  the  specifications  that 
were  first  issued  by  authority  of  the  Government  to  govern  the  con- 
struction of  postal  cars  is  to  enable  those  most  interested  to  see  that 
the  first  step  taken  in  the  effort  to  afford  greater  protection  to  their 
lives  and  limbs  was  a  meritorious  one,  and  also  to  compare  that  con- 
struction with  the  one  provided  for,  in  the  specifications  of  Department 
Plan  No.  1,  which  was  issued  May  1,  1904:.  As  will  be  seen,  these 
specifications  were  revisions  of  those  issued  in  1891,  of  which  I  have 
just  written — and  were  made  under  the  following  circumstances : 

The  dreadful  disaster  to  the  Washington  &  Greensboro  R.  P.  O. 
at  Danville,  Va.,  in  which  clerks  Thompson,  Flory,  Chambers  and 
Argenbright  were  instantly  killed,  and  Spies  so  severely  injured  that 
he  died  soon  thereafter,  and  Reams,  Brooks,  Maupin,  Dunlap  and  In- 
dermauer  seriously  injured,  occurred  September  27,  1903.  I  read  of 
it  in  the  papers  next  morning  on  the  way  to  the  Department ;  it  was  an 
awful  shock,  and  by  the  time  the  Department  was  reached  I  felt  that 
something  must  be  done  immediately  to  still  further  strengthen  the 
cars,  and  to  provide  for  a  knowledge  of  the  condition  of  all  cars,  then 
in  the  service.  At  the  Department  I  passed  my  own  office,  proceeding 
direct  to  the  Second  Assistant,  and  in  a  brief  time  we  discussed  the 
whole  question  thoroughly,  as  we  had  in  part  several  times  previously; 
the  outcome  was  that  I  was  to  send  out  instructions  in  line  with  our 
conversation ;  revise  the  specifications  and  submit  them  to  him  for  his 
approval  and  that  of  the  Postmaster  General.  I  called  Superintendent 
Vickery — who  is  well  versed  in  car  construction  for  a  layman — in 
consultation  at  once,  and,  after  exchanging  views,  requested  him  to 
see  if  he  could  not  get  the  Southern  Railway  people  to  assist  him  in 
drawing  up  a  tracing  from  which  blue  prints  could  be  made,  showing 
all  the  changes  decided  upon.  This  he  did  and  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
secure  the  services  of  one  of  their  draughtsmen  for  very  reasonable 
compensation,  which  I  paid  out  of  my  own  pocket. 

Another  plan,  called  Department  Plan  No.  8,  was  drawn  up  by 
the  master  car  builders  of  some  of  the  roads  with  headquarters  in 
Chicago;  this  plan  provided  for  a  lighter  construction  than  No.  1,  but 
for  a  stronger  car  than  the  plan  of  1891  called  for;  however,  both 
plans  were  adopted,  but  No.  1  was  the  preferential  plan,  and  I  am 
pleased  to  learn  that  No.  2  is  not  in  use. 

The  framing  specifications  of  Plan  No.  1,  as  compared  with  those 
given  above  of  the  1891  car,  were  : 

"Body  Frame. — Composed  of  ten  sills.  Side  sills  each  composed 
of  two  pieces ;  outside  piece  to  be  5x8|  inches ;  inside  piece,  or  sub  sill, 
to  be  2ix7|  inches. 


174 

A  plate  of  steel  ^x8  inches,  to  extend  back  from  end  sill  to  cen- 
ter of  car,  between  the  sills,  and  end  turned,  to  form  angle  against  end 
sill;  plates  to  have  cover  plate  fxl3  inches  by  8  inches  at  break,  held 
in  place  by  eight  f  inch  counter-sunk  head  bolts,  main  plates  counter- 
sunk for  bolt  heads  on  side  next  main  sill ;  outside  sill,  sub-sill  and 
plate  to  be  firmly  bolted  together  with  f  inch  bolts,  staggered  and  not 
more  than  18  inches  apart. 

Center  Sills. — 5x7f  inches,  also  plated  with  |x7f  inch  steel  on 
outside  face,  to  extend  back  18  feet  from  each  end  of  car  and  turned 
over  to  form  angle  against  end  sill.  This  plate  must  not  be  cut  to 
receive  tenons  on  bridging,  but  a  sub-sill,  l^x7f  inches  by  15  feet  6 
inches  in  length,  of  yellow  pine,  bolted  to  plate  and  sill,  must  be  mor- 
tised for  the  bridging. 

Intermediate  Sills. — Two  on  each  side  of  car,  4x7f  inches,  be- 
tween center  and  side  sill. 

End  Sills. — White  oak,  thoroughly  seasoned,  composed  of  two 
pieces  with  |x8  inch  steel  plate  between  them.  Front  piece  to  be 
4^x8^  inches ;  back  piece  to  be  3|x8|  inches ;  back  piece  rabbeted  to 
receive  first  fioor. 

Platform. — To  be  short  standard  steel  "1"  beam  construction, 
to  be  put  up  in  accordance  with  the  established  standard  practice.  To 
have  14x7^  inch  white  oak  buffer  beam,  plated  on  top  surface  with  f 
inch  steel,  to  conform  with  shape  of  bulTer  beams ;  plate  to  be  held  in 
place  by  countersunk  head  bolts,  fitted  with  check  nuts ;  w^earing  sur- 
face opposite  door,  to  be  machined  to  a  diamond  pattern  top  surface. 

Buffer  beam  to  be  secured  to  end  sills  by  at  least  eight  f  inch 
bolts,  and  to  rest  on,  and  be  secured  by  bolts,  to  eye  beams. 

Two  7  inch  23.46  lbs.  bulb  beams,  installed  at  each  end  of  car. 
Bulb  and  web  of  beam  to  be  cut  away,  allowing  fiange  to  project  down 
between  end  sill  and  serve  as  a  truss  rod  washer,  and  also  fastened  to 
top  of  plate  covering  platform  by  means  of  angle  iron  brace  securely 
bolted  to  each  side  of  beams ;  top  of  beams  to  be  butted  to  end  plate, 
and  flange  to  rest  against  stiffening  plates  on  end  post. 

The  poplar  strips  encasing  bulb  beams  to  be  formed  on  the  insida 
to  take  the  shape  of  beams,  and  be  securely  through-bolted  by  means 
of  round  head  bolts  and  nuts.  All  bolts  to  be  center  punched  on  nut 
end  after  tightening  up  nut  in  place. 

End  Plates. — End  plates  to  be  three  inches  thick,  with  steel  plate, 
§x6  inch,  on  inner  side  and  turned  into  angle  at  end  against  side  plate. 

Studding. — Studding  to  be  not  less  than  2  inches  by  3^  inches, 
placed  about  18  inches  center  to  center.  First  and  fourth  posts  from 
end  of  car  to  have  2x2  inch  angle  iron  fitted  to  inside  corner,  with  one 


175 

leg  turned  in  to  form  angle  against  both  sill  and  plate.  All  end  posts  to 
be  reinforced  with  steel  plates,  fx3^  inches,  twisted  at  right  angles  at 
both  top  and  bottom,  and  securely  bolted  to  both  sill  and  plate.  These 
plates  must  not  be  cut  to  receive  tenons  of  bracing,  but  an  extra  piece, 
l^x3f  inches,  extending  from  end  to  end  over  flat  surface  of  plate 
and  mortised  to  receive  tenons  of  bracing,  and  all  to  be  securely  bolted 
together. 

Safety  Bar. — One  inch  gas  pipe  suspended  at  a  level  of  7  feet  3 
inches  from  top  of  floor  to  center  of  bar  and  19  inches  from  center  of 
car.  The  bar  to  extend  from  the  letter  case  end  of  car  to  end  of  paper 
distributing  racks,  located  over  the  aisle,  between  racks,  so  as  to  clear 
lamps.  A  ball  ornament  at  both  ends  of  bar  for  finish.  The  bars 
suspended  by  hangers  not  more  than  8  feet  apart,  secured  to  deck 
ceiling  with  four  No.  18  wood  screws.  Filing  blocks  between  ceiling 
and  roof  at  each  hanger.  The  hanger  composed  of  1  inch  gas  pipe, 
screwed  into  collar  at  top  and  a  pipe  tee  at  bottom,  receiving  sections 
of  the  bar  screwed  in  same. 

One  iron  brace  1|  inches  by  f  inch  at  each  hanger,  extending  from 
bar  to  deck  sill,  and  secured  to  same  with  four  No.  16  wood  screws. 
The  first  hanger  at  letter  case  end  secured  with  iron  brace  |  inch  by 
I  inch,  24  inches  from  center  of  hanger  to  end  plate.  The  bar  to  be 
gilded.  Also  short  safety  bar,  to  extend  from  letter  case  end  of  car 
to  end  of  letter  case^,  opposite  long  bar  and  secured  in  the  same  man- 
ner, located  19  inches  from  center  of  car. 

Carlines. — Ten  iron  carlines,  ^  inch  by  2  inches,  following  the 
contour  of  upper  and  lower  deck. 

Truss  Rods. — Four  truss  rods,  1^  inches  in  diameter,  with  If 
inch  ends,  and  connected  in  center  with  turnbuckle. 

Vestibules. — Standard  short  vestibule  with  diaphragm  complete. 

Trucks. — Axles  should  not  be  smaller  than  M.  C.  B.  standard  for 
40-ton  cars,  with  bearings  and  oil  boxes  in  proportion.  There  should 
be  safety  straps  under  the  spring  plank  and  brake  beams.  Wheel 
pieces  should  be  plated  on  both  sides  with  ^  inch  iron.  There  should 
be  six  wheels — steel  tired  preferred — to  each  truck,  with  total  wheel 
base  of  not  less  than  ten  feet.  Side  bearings  should  be  of  a  section  of 
not  less  than  2x3  inches.  Equalizing  bars,  2^  inches  by  7  inches,  made 
of  axle  steel. 

Brakes. — Automatic  high-speed  air  brakes  of  the  latest  design." 

These  specifications  provided  for  a  much  stronger  car  than  those 
built  under  the  specifications  of  1891.  While  those  were  excellent 
cars — far  better  than  any  previously  built — stronger  cars  had  become 
necessary,    and    also   more    thorough    inspection    and    examination    of 


176 

them,  by  our  own  officers,  while  they  were  in  course  of  construction, 
and  this  was  provided  for.  The  frequency  of  train  service,  both  pas- 
senger and  freight,  and  the  rate  of  speed,  had  increased  wonderfully ; 
this  had  increased  the  hazard  to  our  service.  The  companies  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  all  their  trains  were  in  greater  jeopardy  and  they 
undertook  to  minimize  the  bad  results  by  double  tracking  their  main 
lines  and  applying  the  best  safety  devices  manufactured.  They  laid 
down  heavier  rails^  in  some  instances  replacing  67-pound  with  100- 
pound  steel  rail,  ballasted  their  road-beds  with  the  best  material  avail- 
able, took  out  curves,  reduced  grades,  strengthened  bridges,  employed 
track  walkers  and  bridge  guards — in  short,  did  everything  that  sug- 
gested itself  to  the  most  experienced  and  skillful  managers  and  opera- 
tives, but  the  accidents  did  not  seem  to  decrease,  so  we  brought  out 
Plan  No.  1  on  May  1,  1904. 

The  specifications  given  above  show  how  great  strength  was  se- 
cured, and  it  is  only  necessary  to  add  that  the  Pennsylvania  Company 
built  postal  cars  after  a  modification  of  this  plan,  which  weighed 
28,200  pounds  more  than  the  cars  built  after  the  1891  plan,  and  20,- 
oOO  more  than  those  cars  did  after  they  were  vestibuled  and  mounted 
on  heavier  trucks. 

I  desire,  however,  to  introduce  here  a  communication  on  this  sub- 
ject, which  Superintendent  Bradley  of  the  Second  division  very  kindly 
favored  me  with,  in  response  to  my  earnest  request  for  some  informa- 
tion . 

Mr.  Bradley,  like  all  our  superintendents,  is  an  officer  of  great 
ability,  but  his  headquarters  are  in  the  second  largest  city  in  the 
world ;  in  and  out  of  which  more  railway  trains  pass  daily  than  any 
other;  where  the  volume  of  mail  and  trade  is  greater,  and  the  necessi- 
ties for  improved  methods  of  handling  and  transportation  are  in  pro- 
portion. This  explains  why  his  services  are  so  largely  in  demand,  and 
why  he  has  been  forced  to  acquire  knowledge  not  only  of  the  branch 
of  postal  service  to  which  he  belongs  but  of  other  branches  as  well. 

With  it  all,  he  finds  time  to  cultivate  "his  boys"  for  their  good, 
and  the  combination  helps  to  make  life  pleasant  for  others.  It  has  for 
the  writer. 

Mr.  Bradley's  Letter. 

New  York,  N.  Y.,  May  17,  1909. 

Dear  Captain  :  I  have  gotten  together  a  few  facts  and  dates 
regarding  postal  car  construction,  and  send  them  herewith,  hoping 
that  they  will  be  serviceable. 


Hon.  Victor  J.   Bradi.ky 

S\ipeiiiitendent  Second  Division   K.  M,  S. 
(See  Appendix) 


177 

Postal  Car  Construction. 

In  the  annual  reports  of  the  General  Superintendent  R.  M.  S., 
1879  to  1886,  there  is  nothing  special  about  car  construction  except 
that  in  1886  General  Superintendent  Jamison  says:  "While  many 
improvements  have  been  made  of  late  in  the  construction  and  equip- 
ment of  railroad  lines  as  a  protection  to  life  and  limb,  the  occupation 
of  the  postal  clerk  would  seem  to  be  rendered  none  the  less  dangerous 
on  this  account,  as  many  risks  must  necessarily  be  assumed  by  him  in 
handling  the  mails  which  cannot  be  well  avoided,  or  injury  guarded 
against." 

In  the  reports  from  1887  to  1890  there  is  nothing  special. 

In  the  report  of  1891  of  General  Superintendent  White,  we  find 
the  first  attempt  at  framing  specifications  in  the  report  of  a  committee 
(appointed  by  the  General  Superintendent  R.  M.  S.)  dated  September 
22,  1891. 

In  1903  and  1904  the  number  of  casualties  involving  fatalities  to 
railway  postal  clerks  was  unusually  great,  there  being  18  postal  clerks 
killed  during  the  fiscal  year  1903,  and  the  same  number  during  1904, 
in  addition  to  78  seriously  injured  during  the  former  year,  and  90 
seriously  injured  during  the  latter  year. 

These  deplorable  occurrences  caused  especial  study  to  be  given 
to  the  subject  to  ascertain  the  degree  of  compliance  by  railroad  com- 
panies with  the  framing  specifications  of  1891 ;  but  better  yet,  to  as- 
certain whether  in  view  of  the  increased  strength  and  weight  of  loco- 
motive engines  and  other  railroad  equipment,  the  framing  of  postal 
cars  had  kept  pace  wath  these  higher  standards  of  weight  and  strength. 
The  result  was  shown  in  the  Department  specifications  of  May  1, 
1904,  which  represented  a  degree  of  strength  believed  to  be  consider- 
ably in  excess  of  any  passenger  car  equipment  then  existing,  and  it 
was  particularly  specified  that  division  superintendents  must  inspect 
every  postal  car  while  in  course  of  construction,  and  verify  the  dimen- 
sions and  quality  of  the  framework  before  it  was  covered  up,  and  then 
to  make  a  final  inspection  of  the  car  before  it  was  allowed  to  go  into 
service. 

The  report  of  1905  showed  that  118  new  cars  had  been  built  and 
inspected  under  these  new  specifications ;  and  the  report  of  1906 
showed  97  additional  new  cars,  and  no  doubt  similar  progress  has  been 
made  in  succeeding  years. 

On  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  System  the  Department  Plan  No. 
1  was  accepted,  and  somewhat  modified  to  give  what  the  railroad  com- 
pany believed  to  be  additional  strength  to  the  end  construction.     The 


178 

first  of  these  cars  (No.  6503)  went  into  operation  in  February,  1905, 
and  was  severely  tested  soon  thereafter  in  a  wreck  which  occurred  to 
New  York  &  Washington  R.  P.  O.  train  No.  52,  at  Plainsboro,  N.  J., 
at  4:20  a.  m.  on  May  5,  1905.  Train  No.  52  running  at  a  speed  of 
about  45  miles  per  hour  ran  into  a  freight  wreck  which  occurred  a 
few  minutes  before  train  52  was  due.  The  engine  and  tender  of  train 
52  was  derailed  and  turned  over,  falling  to  the  right  of  the  track. 
This  left  the  new  postal  car  (No.  6503),  which  deflected  to  the  left, 
to  receive  the  full  brunt  of  the  collision  from  the  wreckage.  The  pos- 
tal car  crushed  through  two  box  cars,  breaking  them  to  kindling  wood, 
and  finally  struck  a  steel  gondola  car.  The  postal  car  lost  its  front 
trucks,  and  the  truss  rods  were  twisted ;  but  outside  of  this  there  was 
substantially  no  injury  to  the  car.  There  were  twelve  postal  clerks  on 
duty — seven  in  the  new  car  and  five  in  the  wooden  postal  car  in  the 
rear.  The  clerks  were  all  of  the  opinion  that  the  extraordinary 
strength  of  the  new  car  had  saved  their  lives.  The  weight  of  these 
postal  cars  averaged  about  104,000  to  108,000  pounds,  in  contrast  with 
a  former  weight  of  about  80,000  to  85,000  pounds. 

During  the  time  that  the  General  Superintendent  was  developing 
the  stronger  postal  car  specifications,  Mr.  F.  D.  Underwood,  president 
of  the  Erie  Railroad  Company,  proposed  in  a  letter  to  the  Depart- 
ment, dated  January  28,  1904,  to  build  a  steel  postal  car,  and  the  offer 
being  accepted  this  car  was  constructed  by  the  Standard  Steel  Car 
Company,  and  went  into  service  June  7,  1905,  on  the  New  York,  Sala- 
manca &  Chicago  line.  This  was  the  first  modern  steel  postal  car  in 
use  on  any  line  in  the  country.  It  was  number  699,  65  feet  in  length 
inside  measurement,  and  weighed  118,300  pounds. 

In  course  of  time  it  was  followed  up  by  two  other  steel  postal 
cars  on  the  same  road,  these  weighing  123,000  and  124,000  pounds 
respectively,  they  being  60  feet  in  length,  inside  measurement. 

Some  months  later  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  prepared 
specifications  for  steel  postal  cars,  and  the  first  of  these  (No.  6546) 
commenced  regular  service  on  the  New  York  &  Washington  line 
March  10,  1907.  The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  standard  is  70  feet  in 
length,  inside  measurement,  and  there  are  at  present  (May,  1909)  19 
of  these  cars  in  use  on  that  line.  They  weigh  from  129,000  to  130,- 
000  pounds. 

In  these  cars  a  successful  effort  has  been  made  to  construct  all 
of  the  interior  fixtures  of  steel,  so  that  in  one  of  these  cars  weighing 
130,000  pounds  there  is  less  than  400  pounds  of  wood  material. 


O  s' 

^  g. 

Q  ~ 

^  c 

<;  i 

^^ 

O  S 

>  5 

&  I 


179 

The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  now  have  in  service  21  postal  cars 
according  to  Department  Plan  No.  1.  They  also  have  19  all  steel  cars 
in  use. 

This  year's  building  program  for  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  calls 
for  47  seventy-foot  steel  postal  cars;  11  seventy-foot  steel  mail  apart- 
ment cars  and  27  sixty-foot  steel  mail  storage  cars.  We  also  hear 
that  the  Pennsylvania  Company  (lines  west  of  Pittsburg)  are  to  build 
17  seventy-foot  steel  postal  cars.  We  understand  the  outlay  for  the 
cars  (omitting  the  last  17  mentioned)  will  be  about  one  million  dollars. 

With  best  wishes  from  all  here,  I  am, 

Sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)     V.  J.  Bradi^ey. 

Mr.  E.  F.  Postlethwaite,  assistant  to  the  President  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  Company,  has  my  thanks  for  the  facts  upon  which 
the  following  statement  is  based.  This  statement  is  given  because  it 
shows  clearly  the  improvement  in  car  construction  as  illustrated  by 
their  cost  and  weight : 

Full  cars  built  by  that  company  in  1877,  for  the  exclusive  accom- 
modation and  distribution  of  the  mail  cost  $3,505.00,  no  weight  given. 

In  1883,  a  few  changes  having  been  made  in  the  construction, 
these  built  cars  cost  $3,880.00  each  and  weighed  58,000  pounds ;  they 
were  provided  with  Baker  heaters,  and  lighted  with  oil  lamps,  and  had 
the  old  style  link  and  pin  couplers. 

In  1891,  the  year  our  first  specifications  for  the  framing  of  postal 
cars  was  issued,  the  cars  built  cost  $5,045.00  and  weighed  77,800 
pounds.    These  were  lighted  with  gas  and  heated  by  steam. 

In  1899,  this  same  class  of  cars  was  built  with  stub  vestibules  and 
a  heavier  truck,  which  increased  its  strength  and  capacity,  at  a  cost  of 
$6,417.00,  and  weighed  85,500  pounds. 

In  1904,  our  second  plan.  No.  1,  was  sent  out.  The  cars  built  by 
the  Pennsylvania  Company  by  a  modification  of  plan  No.  1,  though 
substantially  the  same,  cost  $6,926  and  weighed  106,000  pounds,  which 
necessitated  using  stronger  trucks  with  5x9-inch  axles.  These  cars 
were  lighted  with  Pintsch  gas  and  heated  by  steam. 

In  March,  1907,  one  month  after  I  retired  from  the  service,  this 
company  brought  out  its  first  practically  all-steel  postal  car.  It  was  70 
feet  long,  10  feet  longer  than  the  maximum  provided  for  in  the  No. 
1  car,  there  being  but  400  pounds  of  wood  material  in  it.  This  car 
cost  $15,200  and  weighed  128,500  pounds. 


180 

(This  handsome,  modern  all-steel,  electric-lighted  postal  car  was 
described  in  detail  in  the  April,  1907,  issue  of  The  Railway  Post  Office, 
with  half  tones  of  the  interior  and  of  the  completed  car,  and  interior 
plan  of  the  car.  This  article  occupied  considerably  more  than  two 
pages  of  that  number.  The  description  is,  of  course,  too  long  to  be 
reproduced  here,  but  as  the  article  was  written  by  an  expert,  with  par- 
ticular reference  to  the  special  features  of  the  car,  we  presume  it  has 
been  preserved  by  those  interested,  and  should  be  referred  to  by  such 
persons.  The  plans  were  introduced  during  the  administration  of 
Capt.  White,  and  with  his  approval. — Editor.) 

What  has  been  accomplished  by  this  evolution  in  car  building  is 
exhibited  in  the  following  statement,  which  is  made  to  cover  periods 
of  eight  years : 

From  1877  to  1884,  Inci^usive;. 

Twenty-five  clerks  were  killed  and  147  seriously  injured ;  average 
annual  number  killed,  3^ ;  seriously  injured,  18f ;  average  annual  num- 
ber of  clerks,  same  period,  3,153;  killed  per  thousand  1,  plus;  seriously 
injured,  about  6. 

From  1885  to  1892,  Inclusive. 

Forty-three  clerks  were  killed  and  463  seriously  injured;  average 
annual  number  killed,  5f ;  seriously  injured,  57^;  average  annual  num- 
ber of  clerks,  same  period,  5,329  ;  killed  per  thousand,  about  1 ;  seriously 
injured,  about  11. 

From  1893  to  1900,  Inclusive. 
Fifty-seven  clerks  were  killed  and  385  seriously  injured;  average 
annual  number  killed,  7| ;  seriously  injured,  48^;  average  annual  num- 
ber clerks  in  service,  same  period,  7,576;  killed  per  thousand,  1,  plus; 
seriously  injured,  7,  minus. 

From  1901  to  1908,  Inclusive. 

Eighty  clerks  were  killed  and  750  seriously  injured ;  average  an- 
nual number  killed,  10 ;  seriously  injured,  93  6-8 ;  average  annual 
number  of  clerks  in  service,  same  period,  11,803;  killed  per  thousand, 
about  5-6 ;  seriously  injured,  8,  minus. 

The  exhibit  is  that  the  improvement  made  in  the  construction  of 
postal  cars,  in  double  tracking  lines  and  keeping  them  in  good  condi- 
tion, in  the  handling  of  trains  by  men  whose  moral  standing  when  on 
duty,  at  least,  is  above  reproach,  etc.,  has  not  only  overcome  the  in- 
creased hazard  inseparable  from  increased  frequency  of  train  service 


181 

and  the  very  great  increase  of  speed  that  has  occurred  during  the  past 
twenty  years,  but  has  actually  reduced  the  per  cent,  of  violent  deaths 
and  serious  injuries  in  accidents  to  trains  upon  which  railway  post 
offices  perform  their  functions,  and  this  is  a  matter  that  should  cause 
us  all  to  rejoice. 

SPECIAL  SERVICE. 
The  Gold  Train. 

The  large  accumulation  of  gold  coin  in  the  United  States  sub- 
treasury  at  New  York  City,  during  one  period  of  President  Cleveland's 
first  administration,  was  gradually  reduced  by  shipments  abroad,  and 
by  the  cashing  of  gold  certificates,  until,  in  July,  1892,  it  amounted  to 
less  than  $43,000,000.  This  sum,  the  Hon.  Charles  Foster,  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  felt  with  much  anxiety  might  prove  insufficient  to 
meet  the  demands  likely  to  be  made  upon  it  before  the  drift  of  busi- 
ness was  reversed,  and  gold,  then  flowing  outward,  would  commence 
to  flow  back  to  our  shores.  The  margin  ran  too  close  to  panic  con- 
ditions ;  business  was  becoming  more  depressed  daily ;  values  were  de- 
clining, and  the  financial  outlook  was  overcast  with  clouds  that  por- 
tended misfortunes  to  many  houses  doing  their  utmost  to  stay  the 
threatened  catastrophe. 

In  this  emergency  the  Secretary  deemed  it  his  duty,  as  a  precau- 
tionary measure,  to  order  the  transfer  of  $20,000,000  in  gold  coin  to 
the  sub-treasury  in  New  York  City  from  the  sub-treasury  in  San 
Francisco,  in  which  latter  there  was  then  a  surplus  of  $100,000,000. 
It  had  been  customary  for  many  years  to  send  gold  in  amounts  ranging 
from  $50,000  to  $200,000,  as  registered  mail  from  San  Francisco  to 
New  York  City,  enclosed  in  leather  pouches,  locked  with  brass  locks, 
and  in  rawhide  trunks.  The  secretary  first  planned  to  follow  this  cus- 
tom but  to  increase  the  amount  of  each  shipment  to  $1,000,000,  thus 
consuming  twenty  days  in  the  transfer,  but  his  plan  became  public  and 
was  abandoned.  After  consulting  with  his  assistants  he  held  a  confer- 
ence with  the  Hon.  John  Wanamaker,  Postmaster  General,  as  to  the 
best  and  safest  method  of  moving  so  large  a  sum  in  coin,  registered 
as  mail,  from  one  city  to  the  other.  Mr.  J.  Lowrie  Bell,  Second 
A-Ssistant  Postmaster  General,  and  myself  discussed  the  subject  thor- 
oughly, and  gave  our  conclusions  to  our  chief.  The  result  of  the  con- 
ference between  the  Secretary  and  the  Postmaster  General  was  cm- 
bodied  in  a  letter  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy : 


182 

"Post  Office  Department, 
"Office  Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General. 

"Washington,  D.  C,  20th  July,  1892. 
"Captain  James  E.  White, 

Genl  Supt.  Railway  Mail  Service. 
"Sir:  You  will  consider  this  as  your  authority  to  proceed  to  San 
Francisco,  California,  for  the  purpose  of  personally  directing  the 
movement  by  United  States  Mail,  of  a  number  of  shipments  of  regis- 
tered matter,  particulars  of  which  have  already  been  furnished  you. 
You  will  take  such  steps  en  route  as  may  be  requisite  in  the  perfecting 
of  arrangements  for  running  the  cars  through  from  San  Francisco  to 
point  of  destination,  and  you  will  make  such  details  of  force  from 
the  railway  mail  service  as  shall  enable  you  to  assign  to  each  car  ship- 
ment one  assistant  superintendent  and  nine  trusted  clerks  to  continue 
in  absolute  charge  until  the  arrival  of  the  car  they  accompany  at  des- 
tination. 

"Whatever  details  may  occur  to  you  as  essential  to  the  successful 
accomplishment  of  the  service,  you  are  hereby  empowered  to  enforce. 
This  office — by  code — must  be  kept  advised  of  such  matters  as  you 
may  from  time  to  time  deem  necessary. 

"Yours  respectfully, 

"(Signed)     J.  Lowrie  Bell, 
"Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General." 

Complying  with  the  above  I  departed  from  Washington,  July  21, 
1892,  and  made  my  first  stop  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  where  I  called  upon 
Mr.  W.  H.  Canniff,  general  manager  of  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan 
Southern  Railway,  and  had  a  confidential  conversation  with  him  re- 
specting the  trip  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  I  closed  with  the  request  that 
he  furnish  one  of  the  cars  that  would  be  needed  to  transport  the  gold 
and  guards  eastward  and  deliver  it  in  Chicago,  to  the  Chicago,  Bur- 
lington &  Quincy  Railway,  in  time  for  that  company  to  deliver  it  with 
one  of  their  own  to  the  Union  Pacific  System  at  Omaha,  Neb.,  July 
26,  1893,  also  to  take  care  of  the  treasury  cars  from  the  time  they  were 
transferred  to  his  company  in  Chicago  until  transferred  to  New  York 
Central  &  Hudson  River  Co.  at  Buffalo,  saying  that  that  line  would 
take  them  through  to  New  York  City  without  delay.  Mr.  Canniflf 
agreed  to  perform  all  this  promptly  in  natural  sequence. 

I  had  telegraphed  Superintendents  Troy,  Pepper  and  Perkins,  of 
the  Sixth,  Ninth  and  Tenth  divisions,  to  meet  me  at  the  Grand  Pacific 
Hotel,   Chicago,   Saturday  morning,   July   23,   1892,    for  consultation. 


183 

They  reported  promptly  and  the  object  of  the  call  was  made  known 
to  them,  the  character  of  the  work  was  explained  and  they  were  in- 
formed that  to  transport  and  safeguard  the  coin  from  one  coast  to 
the  other,  five  cars  would  be  required,  and  that  meant  the  detail  of 
five  officers  and  forty-five  clerks,  and  that  I  would  detail  the  three 
officers  present.  Superintendents  Flint  of  the  Eighth  division  and 
Assistant  Superintendent  Vaille  of  Portland,  Oregon ;  that  Superin- 
tendent Troy  would  select  fifteen  clerks.  Pepper  twelve,  Perkins  nine, 
Flint  nine,  and  that  Vaille's  force  would  be  composed  of  six  from 
Troy's  and  three  from  Pepper's. 

I  stated  that  great  care  must  be  exercised  in  making  selections,  sol- 
diers of  the  Civil  War  to  be  given  the  preference.  The  three  superin 
tendents  with  their  thirty-six  clerks  were  instructed  to  center  at  Omaha, 
Neb.,  the  morning  of  Friday,  July  29,  and  Supt.  Troy  was  to  have 
charge  until  they  arrived  at  San  Francisco.  I  gave  him  the  inspector's 
commissions  for  these  thirty-six  employees  to  use  bound  east,  with- 
out fail,  and  also  west,  if  tickets  could  not  be  secured  without  cost. 
It  was  not  deemed  best  to  use  commissions  bound  west,  if  it  could  be 
avoided,  because  of  the  suspicion  and  comments  it  might  cause. 
Money  was  provided  for  living  expenses  and  emergencies,  and  the 
superintendents  were  informed  that  they  must  preserve  the  strictest 
secrecy  as  to  the  object  of  the  hegira  to  the  coast  of  so  many  post 
office  inspectors  in  a  body. 

They  were  to  tell  the  clerks  that  the  work  of  the  divisions  from 
which  they  were  detailed  had  been  so  exceptionally  good  for  some 
years  that  the  Post  Office  Department  desired  as  a  measure  of  encour- 
agement to  recognize  it  in  some  unusual  and  attractive  way,  and  be- 
lieved that  an  outing  across  the  country  to  San  Francisco,  with  a  few 
days  for  sight-seeing  in  that  city,  would  not  only  please  them,  but 
that  in  extending  to  them  the  courtesies  of  the  Eighth  division,  the 
clerks  in  that  far  off  section  would  be  brought  in  close  contact  with 
them,  with  the  result  that  they  would  discuss  the  service,  the  methods 
in  vogue  in  their  respective  divisions,  and  these  distant  comrades  would 
absorb  knowledge  that  would  be  of  assistance  to  them  in  their  work. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  these  men  made  the  trip  to  San  Francisco, 
arriving  there  at  9  :45  a.  m.,  Monday,  August  1,  and  departing  for  the 
east  at  7  :00  p.  m.,  Thursday,  August  4,  1892,  without  the  least  knowl- 
edge of  the  real  object  of  the  trip,  nor  were  they  then  aware  of  it  until 
they  were  taken  down  to  the  cars  at  the  lower  transfer  the  morning  of 
this,  the  last  day  in  San  Francisco,  to  witness  the  opening  of  the  army 
chests  containing  the  Springfield  carbines  with  2,000  rounds  of  car- 


184 

tridges,  the  Colt  revolvers,  calibre  45,  and  1,000  rounds  of  cartridges, 
with  holsters  and  cartridge-belts  sufficient  to  equip  each  member  of  the 
guard. 

After  arranging  with  the  three  superintendents  at  Chicago  for 
the  out-bound  trip,  its  secrecy,  etc.,  and  providing  Supterintendent 
Troy  with  sufficient  money  to  pay  their  expenses  west,  I  called  on  Mr. 
W.  F.  Merrill,  general  manager  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy 
Railway,  and  conversed  with  him  confidentially  regarding  the  transfer 
of  the  gold  coin.  Mr.  Merrill  agreed  to  furnish  one  of  their  post 
office  cars.  No.  933,  as  their  quota,  and  to  deliver  it  and  the  Lake 
Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  post  office  car,  No.  G95,  to  the  Union 
Pacific  Company  at  Omaha,  Tuesday,  July  26,  1892 — mileage  not  to  be 
charged  on  No.  695.  He  also  furnished  tickets  for  the  clerks,  west- 
bound, and  agreed  to  accept  the  cars  in  which  the  gold  would  be  trans- 
ported either  separately,  or  as  a  whole,  made  up  as  a  special  train,  at 
Union  Pacific  Transfer,  and  to  deliver  them,  as  received,  to  the  Lake 
Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  Railway  at  Chicago. 

I  then  took  up  the  memorandum  of  Second  Assistant  Postmaster 
General  Bell,  which  provided  that  I  fix  the  code  to  be  used  between 
him  and  myself,  and  answered  it.  It  contemplated  that  there  would, 
very  likely,  be  five  shipments  of  $4,000,000  each,  rather  than  one  of 
$20,000,000,  and  the  one  in  charge  of  each  shipment  was  to  use  the 
code  in  keeping  us  two  advised  of  progress.  The  draft  of  the  answer 
I  drew  off  with  a  lead  pencil  on  yellow  paper,  and  sent  a  corrected 
copy  in  ink  to  Mr.  Bell.    It  read  as  follows: 

Chicago,  July  25,  1892. 

Mr.  Bei.l:  Thus  far  the  arrangement  is  all  right.  The  L.  S.  & 
M.  S.  will  provide  one  car,  and  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  one.  These  two  will  be 
forwarded  to  Union  Pacific  Transfer  Tuesday.  I  will  leave  here  to- 
night, and  see  Mr.  Dickinson  at  Omaha  to-morrow.  Will  try  to  get 
two  cars  and  a  colonist  sleeper  from  him;  the  sleeper  to  be  used  west- 
bound only ;  if  I  can  get  it  free,  will ;  if  not  will  get  it  at  reduced  rates, 
but  believe  I  can  get  it  without  cost.  The  men  will  need  sleeping 
accommodations  going  west,  for  they  will  have  to  rough  it  coming  east. 

I  expect  to  leave  Omaha  Monday  night  on  Fast  Mail,  and  Troy, 
Pepper  and  Perkins,  with  their  men,  will  center  at  Omaha  Friday 
morning  and  leave  that  afternoon.  This  will  give  me  time  to  reach 
San  Francisco  and  telegraph  them  before  they  leave  Omaha.  Going 
west,  I  shall,  if  possible,  provide  the  men  with  tickets,  if  I  can  secure 
them  without  cost,  for  this  will  prevent  any  comment  on  the  large 
number  of  commissions. 


185 

The  C.  B.  &  Q.  will  provide  the  tickets  over  their  line  free.  Com- 
ing back  we  will  use  the  commissions,  and  if  everything  works 
smoothly  we  will  reach  Omaha  east-bound  on  the  8th  of  August,  Chi- 
cago on  the  9th,  and  New  York  City  on  the  10th.  (As  a  matter  of 
fact  we  arrived  at  Union  Pacific  Transfer,  Iowa,  on  Sunday  at  7  :00 
p.  m.,  August  7th,  Chicago  at  8  :15  a.  m.,  August  8th,  and  New  York 
City  at  10:46  a.  m.,  Tuesday,  August  9th,  1892.) 

I  suggest  that  you  arrange  personally  with  the  New  York  Central 
to  carry  the  train  from  Buffalo  to  New  York,  so  that  there  may  be  no 
hitch  at  Buffalo.  Will  telegraph  you  the  day  we  leave  San  Francisco  as 
follows,  if  as  second  section:  "Have  engaged  an  old  stage  coach  for 
the  World's  Fair."  If  five  shipments  must  be  made,  will  telegraph  the 
day  the  first  one  leaves,  "Syracuse  and  Cleveland  division  should  be 
extended,"  which  will  mean.  Pepper  in  charge.  Second  shipment, 
"Portland  and  San  Francisco  in  good  condition,"  which  will  mean  Flint 
in  charge.  Third  shipment,  "Vaille  can  be  supplied  from  Los  Banos 
route,"  which  will  mean  Vaille  in  charge.  Fourth  shipment,  "Minnea- 
polis and  Chicago  needs  -10  foot  additional,"  which  will  mean  Perkins 
in  charge.  Fifth  shipment,  "White's  Bridge  should  be  made  a  Post 
Office,"  which  will  mean  that  White  and  Troy  are  in  charge.  I  expect, 
however,  to  come  as  a  second  section  and  if  so  will  be  in  charge. 

If  five  shipments,  will  send  Pepper  first,  so  that  if  a  hitch  occurs 
between  Chicago  and  New  York  City,  he  can  correct  it  before  the  sec- 
ond shipment  is  due. 

Keep  June  schedules  of  Sixth  and  Eighth  divisions  and  July  of 
the  Ninth  before  you.  If  anything  happens  on  the  Ogden  &  San  Fran- 
cisco R.  P.  O. — such  as  hot  box,  broken  engine,  repairs  to  track,  some 
other  train  in  ditch,  or  any  other  ordinary  cause  of  delay,  I  will  tele- 
graph, "See  page  23. — Land  slide  at  2  :05  a.  m.,"  which  would  mean 
delayed  at  Gold  Run.  Any  other  time  given  in  the  telegram  would  in- 
dicate where  the  delay  occurred.  If  we  are  ditched  will  substitute  for 
land  slide  "Ruins  at  2  :05  a.  m.,"  and  the  number  following  would  indi- 
cate how  many  are  unfit  to  defend. 

If  attacked  will  substitute  "Strike  on  again  at  2:05  a.  m.  in  Idaho." 
After  that  there  will  be  no  use  in  using  cipher  but  will  talk  out  in 
meeting. 

If  you  find  it  necessary  to  call  a  halt  anywhere,  you  will  know  what 
to  say.    I  will  understand. 

If  everything  moves  right  will  telegraph  from  Reno,  Ogden,  Chey- 
enne, Union  Pacific  Transfer  and  Chicago,  "Service  in  excellent  con- 
dition." Respectfully, 

White. 


18G 

Having  finished  and  mailed  the  above,  I  took  the  train  for  Omaha, 
where  I  arrived  Monday  morning,  July  25,  and  as  early  in  the  day  as 
possible  saw  General  Manager  Dickinson,  who  agreed  to  furnish  two 
of  the  five  cars,  viz:  baggage  car  No.  1092,  and  express  car  No.  1242. 
Both  were  unusually  well  built  cars,  and  No.  1242  was  plated  through- 
out its  interior  with  boiler  iron,  and  its  windows  were  heavily  barred. 
He  also  agreed  to  waive  mileage  on  the  foreign  cars ;  to  issue  tickets 
for  the  west-bound  trip ;  to  furnish  a  tourists'  sleeper  to  San  Francisco, 
for  the  minimum  charge  in  one  direction,  and  finally  to  accept  the  cars, 
east-bound,  from  the  Southern  Pacific  Company,  at  Ogden,  Utah, 
either  separately,  with  their  guards,  or  made  up  as  a  train  with  all  the 
guards,  to  push  them,  or  it,  through  to  Union  Pacific  Transfer  and  de- 
liver it,  or  them,  to  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  Railway  without 
avoidable  delay.  This  being  accomplished,  I  took  passage  in  the 
Omaha  &  Ogden  Fast  Mail  that  evening,  and  changing  to  the  Ogden 
&  San  Francisco  Fast  Mail  at  Ogden  arrived  at  San  Francisco  at  9  :45 
a   m.,  Thursday,  July,  28. 

I  called  on  Vice-President  Towne  and  Manager  Fillmore  on  my 
arrival  and  made  satisfactory  arrangements  for  tickets  for  the  clerks 
from  Ogden  to  San  Francisco;  for  the  delivery  of  the  four  cars  that 
were  to  be  used  to  transport  the  gold,  and  that  were  then  en  route  to 
Ogden,  into  their  own  yards  in  San  Francisco,  without  mileage  charge, 
and  on  the  return  trip  to  deliver  them  as  a  second  section  of  their  east- 
bound  Fast  Mail,  running  ten  minutes  behind  it,  to  the  Union  Pacific 
Company,  at  Ogden,  Utah.  This  decided  the  question  whether  the 
$20,000,000  would  be  dispatched  in  five  separate  shipments  of  $4,000,- 

000  each,  or,  as  occurred,  in  one  shipment  of  $20,000,000,  by  special 
train.  To  complete  this  train,  for  the  best  transportation  and  guard 
purposes,  the  Southern  Pacific  Company  furnished  as  its  quota  an 
officers'  car  with  an  observation  end,  and  facilities  for  making  cofifee. 

1  carried  west  a  letter,  addressed  to  me  by  instruction  of  the  chief  of 
ordnance.  War  Department,  informing  me  that  the  commanding  officer 
of  the  Benicia  Arsenal  at  Benicia,  California,  had  been  directed  to  issue 
to  me  seventy-five  rifles  or  carbines,  as  I  might  elect,  with  not  exceed- 
ing 3000  rounds  of  ammunition  and  such  equipment  as  I  might  desire. 
I  therefore  visited  the  arsenal  and  presented  the  letter  to  the  command- 
ing officer,  who  accepted  it  and  was  ready  to  comply  with  the  instruc- 
tions, he  having  received  a  letter  from  the  same  officer,  and  to  the  same 
effect  as  mine,  but  I  said  I  desired  a  change  made  in  the  arms,  ammuni- 
tion, equipment,  etc.,  if  permissible.  He  asked  what  change  I  would 
like,  and  I  said  I  would  prefer  sixty  Springfield  carbines  and  2,000 


187 

rounds  of  cartridges,  fifty-one  Colt's  revolvers  and  1000  cartridges, 
fifty-one  cartridge  belts  and  the  same  number  of  holsters.  The  com- 
manding ofiicer  said  he  thought  that  could  be  arranged,  and  while  I 
waited  he  received  authority  to  do  so.  The  invoice  of  arms,  ammuni- 
tion and  equipment  turned  over  to  me  was  made  out  and  I  receipted 
it,  requesting  that  the  boxes  containing  them  be  delivered  to  the  ad- 
dress I  gave.  I  then  telegraphed  to  Mr.  Fillmore,  the  manager  of 
the  Southern  Pacific  Company,  the  disposition  to  be  made  of  the  boxes 
until  I  could  see  him ;  he  wired  back  as  follows : 

"San  Francisco,  Cal.,  August  2,  1893. 
"James  E.  White, 

"Army  Point,  Benicia,  Cal. 
"I  have  given  the  necessary  instructions  as  per  your  telegram  rela- 
tive to  boxes  from  Army  Point  to-morrow  morning  on  Train  No.  12. 

"(Signed)     J.  A.  Fillmore." 

I  returned  to  San  Francisco  at  once  and  called  on  Hon.  J.  P. 
Jackson,  the  assistant  treasurer  of  the  United  States  in  that  city,  and 
found  his  force  engaged  in  packing  the  coin,  $5,  $10  and  $20  pieces, 
in  substantial  boxes,  eight  sacks,  each  sack  containing  $5,000,  being 
packed  in  each  of  the  500  boxes.  When  all  were  packed  the  covers 
were  screwed  down  securely  with  long  screws.  On  each  end  of  each 
box  was  an  iron  handle.  Each  box  weighed  160  pounds  gross  and 
contained  152  pounds  of  gold,  a  boxful  was  worth  $40,000.  Every  box 
was  registered  separately  and  was  sealed  twice  with  the  official  seal 
in  red  wax  of  Col.  J.  P.  Jackson,  assistant  United  States  treasurer  at 
San  Francisco.  The  registry  numbers  ran  from  4421  to  4920,  inclu- 
sive. The  entire  shipment  of  gold  was  76,000  pounds  net,  or  including 
the  boxes,  80,000  pounds.  Col.  Jackson's  work  was  progressing  finely. 
I  found  him  very  courteous,  and  was  most  favorably  impressed  with 
him. 

I  then  visited  the  post  office  again  and  had  a  short  conversation 
with  Mr.  Backus,  the  postmaster,  about  registering  the  mail  in  the 
sub-treasury,  thus  avoiding  one  haul  and  one  chance  of  the  transfer 
becoming  known.  The  next  call  was  on  Superintendent  Flint,  who 
handed  me  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Fillmore,  requesting  me  to  call  at  his 
office  that  afternoon.  I  called  and  found  that  the  wife  of  a  member 
of  a  gang  of  train  robbers  had  called  at  the  baggage  car  of  a  train 
standing  in  the  yard  of  the  Southern  Pacific,  and  handed  the  baggage 
man  a  letter  addressed  to  her  husband  and  asked  him  to  mail  it.  He 
accepted  it,  and  made  a  proper  delivery,  considering  the  circumstances. 


188 

He  knew  nothing  about  the  proposed  shipment  of  gold  east,  but  he 
did  know  the  woman,  the  lawless  occupation  of  her  husband,  and  the 
losses  his  employers  had  sustained  at  the  hands  of  these  marauders, 
and  delivered  it  properly.  It  was  read  with  great  care,  first  in  the 
regular  way,  then  between  the  lines,  upside  down,  down  side  up,  under 
a  magnifying  glass,  etc.,  etc.,  but  without  finding  that  this  wife  was 
seeking  to  inform  her  "lord  and  master"  that  the  largest  "Jack  pot" 
ever  heard  of  in  that  land  once  famous  for  the  magnitude  and  fre- 
quency of  the  game,  was  in  sight  and  might  be  had  if  they  could  locate 
it  and  wipe  out  of  existence  as  courageous  and  experienced  defenders 
of  anything  entrusted  to  their  care  as  ever  lived,  and  who  were  well 
armed  and  mostly  men  who  had  fought  on  battle  fields  of  the  Civil 
War,  and  afterward — during  their  experience  in  the  railway  mail 
service,  had  come  to  understand  that  their  civil  calling  was  sacred ; 
that  honor,  responsibility,  fidelity  and  eternal  vigilance  were  wrapped 
up  in  it,  that  it  was  fraught  with  the  full  culmination  of  a  hazardous 
occupation — loss  of  life  and  limb,  wrecked  health  and  sometimes  dis- 
tress and  poverty.  Does  anyone  believe  that  men  reared  in  these 
schools  would  flinch  if  the  hour  of  supreme  trial  came,  when  they  were 
equipped  to  meet  it,  in  part,  at  least?    I  did  not,  nor  ever  have. 

Superintendents  Troy,  Perkins  and  Pepper,  with  their  thirty-six 
men,  centered  at  Omaha  on  Friday  morning,  July  29,  1892,  as  pro- 
vided in  the  Chicago  conference,  and  arrived  at  San  Francisco  at  9  :45 
a.  m.,  Monday,  August  1,  1892.  The  whole  force  remained  there  sight- 
seeing until  the  morning  of  August  4. 

The  last  subjects  that  threatened  trouble  were:  First,  a  claim 
made  by  one  of  the  companies  for  mileage  on  the  foreign  cars  hauled 
by  it,  empty,  west-bound ;  that  was  settled  quickly  and  pleasantly  by 
the  company  waiving  the  claim.  Second,  the  presentation  for  my 
signature  of  a  paper  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy : 

"San  Francisco,  August  3,  1892. 
"To  the  Southern  Pacific  Company: 

"I  am  directed  by  the  Postmaster  General  to  require  your  com- 
pany to  furnish  transportation  for  twenty  million  dollars  of  gold  coin 
from  San  Francisco  to  Ogden  by  passenger  train.  It  will  require  four 
baggage  or  express  cars  and  it  is  the  desire  of  the  Department  that 
such  cars  shall  be  used  as  may  go  through  to  New  York  without  re- 
quiring the  transfer  of  the  specie  en  route. 

"We  shall  also  require  the  transportation  of  fifty  men  by  same 
train  which  carries  the  specie,  these  men  being  required  as  guards. 


189 

"I  hereby  certify  that  the  Southern  Pacific  Co.  has  furnished 
transportation  from  Ogden  to  San  Francisco  by  express  train  for 
fifty  men  en  route  to  San  Francisco,  to  return  with  the  specie  aforesaid 
as  guards." 

This  and  a  similar  paper  I  succeeded  in  convincing  Mr.  Towne  I 
could  not  sign,  and  he  consented  to  consider  a  paper  which  I  proposed 
to  draw  up,  and  did  as  follows : 

"San  Francisco,  August  3,  1892. 
"Personal. 

"Mr.  A.  N.  Tozvne,  Sec,  Vice-Pres.  and  Gen.  Mgr. 
Southern  Pacific  Co.,  City. 
"Dear  Sir:  I  hereby  certify  that  the  Southern  Pacific  Company, 
through  you,  has  provided  for  the  transportation  from  San  Francisco, 
California,  to  Ogden,  Utah,  of  large  quantities  of  valuable  registered 
mail,  the  same  to  be  transported  in  four  express  cars,  furnished  by  the 
Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern,  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  and 
Union  Pacific  Companies.  I  have  post  office  inspectors'  commissions 
for  fifty  men,  besides  myself,  who  are  to  accompany  and  protect  said 
registered  mail,  all  of  whom  I  will  provide  for  when  the  cars  are  en 
route.  I  will  want  to  leave  San  Francisco,  or  Oakland  Pier,  as  may 
be  determined  later  on,  either  Thursday  night  or  Friday  morning. 
Will  you  please  make  all  arrangements  in  advance,  in  a  quiet  way,  to 
effect  a  safe  and  expeditious  transit  over  your  road. 

"Yours  truly, 

"(Signed)     James  E.  White, 

"Gen'l  Supt,  R.  M.  S." 

The  morning  of  the  4th  Superintendent  Flint  was  provided  money 
and  instructed  to  purchase  provisions  for  the  trip  from  San  Francisco 
to  Ogden  and  mattresses,  camp  stools,  chairs  and  tinware  for  the  whole 
journey. 

Finding  that  the  gold  coin  had  been  boxed  and  registered  and  that 
the  Southern  Pacific  Company  had  made  up  the  train  at  the  Lower 
Transfer,  the  observation  end  of  the  officers'  car  coupled  to  the  tender, 
which  was  narrower  than  that  car  and  the  engine,  enabled  the  guards 
who  occupied  the  chairs  placed  in  front  of  the  observation  windows 
to  focus  their  sight  in  front  of  the  engine  and  to  command  the  country 
and  the  steps  on  either  side  of  the  engine  upon  which  one  must  mount 
to  gain  access  to  that  machine.  Then  followed  C.  B.  &  Q.  R.  P.  O 
car  No.  983,  L.  S.  &  M.  S.  R.  P.  O.  car  No.  695,  Union  Pacific  bag- 
gage car  No.  1092  and  express  car  No.  12-42  of  the  same  line,  a  regu- 


190 

lar  iron  clad.  The  boxes,  equally  apportioned,  were  transported  in  the 
four  cars  last  mentioned.  A  "dinky"  car  was  hauled  part  way  to  ac- 
commodate the  train  crew. 

The  chests  and  boxes  containing  the  ordnance  stores  were  placed 
in  these  cars.  The  guards  were  shown  into  their  respective  cars,  then 
the  chests  and  boxes  were  opened  and  the  munitions  issued  to  the 
guards.  After  this  the  registered  boxes  began  to  be  moved  from  the 
sub-treasury  across  the  city  on  heavy  truck  wagons  to  the  Lower 
Transfer.  As  a  wagon  was  loaded  a  tarpaulin  was  thrown  over  the 
boxes  and  two  guards  with  arms  concealed  accompanied  it  to  the 
train  and  saw  them  unloaded.  Enough  wagons  were  engaged  in  the 
transfer  to  prevent  delay.  As  each  was  unloaded  it  returned  to  the 
sub-treasury  and  proceeded  as  before.  The  officers  and  guard  at  the 
Lower  Transfer  placed  the  boxes  on  the  floor  of  each  car,  one  layer 
deep  only,  on  each  side  of  an  imaginary  aisle  running  lengthwise 
through  the  center  of  the  car;  piled  this  way  each  car  contained  125 
boxes.  On  top  of  these  were  placed  the  mattresses  upon  which  the 
guards  rested  when  off  duty.  There  were  nine  clerks  and  one  officer 
in  each  of  the  four  cars  carrying  gold.  In  the  first,  or  observation 
car,  sometimes  called  the  danger  car,  there  were  nine  guards  and  two 
officers ;  five  constituted  a  squad,  therefore,  there  were  two  squads 
in  each  car,  and  they  relieved  each  other  regularly ;  those  who  were  off 
duty  and  lying  down  either  sleeping  or  resting,  were  required  to  keep 
their  carbines  by  their  sides,  the  barrel  resting  in  the  inside  curve  of 
the  arm  and  the  revolver  within  reach;  those  who  were  on  duty  were 
required  to  occupy  chairs  and  camp  stools  near  the  doors  and  windows, 
to  keep  wide  awake,  their  revolvers  in  holsters  belted  on  their  bodies, 
their  carbines  in  reach  and  the  doors  bolted  and  locked.  No  one  was 
permitted  to  enter  any  of  these  cars,  not  even  the  one  to  which  he  was 
assigned,  without  first  giving  the  countersign  "Grant,"  a  name  selected 
in  honor  of  our  old  commander. 

The  provisions,  bedding,  furniture,  etc.,  that  Superintendent  Flint 
was  commissioned  to  purchase  in  the  morning  arrived  during  the  day 
and  were  placed  in  the  cars.  All  this  was  transpiring  in  the  business 
portion  of  the  city  all  day  and  no  one  except  those  officially  concerned 
in  it  seemed  to  know  anything  about  it.  The  postmaster  of  San 
Francisco  had  receipted  to  Colonel  Jackson  for  the  registered  boxes, 
and  now  having  checked  off  the  last  one  in  turn  I  receipted  to  Post- 
master Backus  for  the  whole  500  boxes,  containing  an  aggregate  of 
$20,000,000  in  gold  coin. 


Hon.  Norman  Perkins 

Superintendent  Tenth  Division  R.  M.  S. 
(See  Appendix) 


191 

We  felt  that  we  had  done  well  in  placing  in  proper  position  on 
the  train  everything  that  had  been  assigned  to  our  charge,  without  the 
knowledge  of  anyone  on  the  outside. 

We  left  the  Lower  Transfer  secretly  as  a  supposed  silk  train,  and 
this  fable  served  its  purpose  well ;  it  was  repeated  whenever  its  eflfec- 
tiveness  was  not  likely  to  be  doubted  until  we  arrived  at  Ogden,  Utah. 
The  guards  were  in  their  assignments,  the  doors  were  locked,  all  were 
wide  awake  as  we  moved  out  into  the  Sacramento  Valley  on  the  old 
Central  Pacific  track,  as  a  second  section  of  the  Trans-Continental 
Fast  Mail,  the  position  we  intended  to  occupy  until  the  last  stretch  of 
the  run,  Chicago  to  New  York,  began. 

No  doubt  many  are  living  to-day  in  that  beautiful  valley  who  re- 
call the  wonderful  "silk  train"  that  moved  like  an  electric  flame,  bear- 
ing re-enforcements  of  financial  strength  from  the  chief  port  of  the 
Pacific  to  the  chief  port  of  the  Atlantic,  pausing  to  repair  a  drawhead 
on  car  No.  695  before  commencing  the  ascent  of  the  mountains  tower- 
ing in  the  rear  of  Sacramento  City. 

A  half  hour  was  lost  in  this  operation  and  then  the  train  moved 
quietly  out  into  the  plains,  up  the  foothills  and  the  climb  began ;  the 
higher  we  mounted  the  more  tense  the  strain  upon  the  couplings  be- 
came. The  monster  engine  generated  and  expended  force  with  great 
urgency — its  exhaust  represented  its  vitality  just  as  the  action  of  the 
human  heart  presents  the  condition  of  the  human  system  of  which  it 
is  the  thermometer,  and  one  skilled  in  either  can  tell  by  the  sound  to 
the  ear  or  the  touch  of  the  finger  whether  the  limit  of  the  power  has 
been  reached  or  more  is  generating  than  is  needed  to  move  the  load. 
The  strain  became  greater  until  in  the  extreme  eflfort  to  reach  the 
apex  the  coupling  between  the  engine  and  the  observation  car  broke, 
and  the  situation  became  dangerous,  but  the  company  had  taken  the 
precaution  to  reinforce  the  couplings  at  all  points  with  chains  and  this 
was  demonstrated  to  be  absolutely  necessary  when  the  coupling  be- 
tween the  engine  and  the  observation  car  parted ;  had  the  chain  been 
lacking  the  five  cars  would  have  commenced  the  descent  the  moment 
they  broke  from  the  power  that  held  them,  before  air  or  hand  brakes 
could  have  been  applied — and  down  they  would  have  started  upon  a 
ride  to  destruction  at  least — perhaps  to  death. 

The  loss  in  time  which  occurred  at  Sacramento,  added  to  the  de- 
lay in  repairing  the  couplings  at  Colfax,  Cal.,  put  us  more  than  three 
hours  behind  the  Fast  Mail  at  that  point.  In  a  short  time  it  was  no- 
ticed that  our  train  was  being  side-tracked  in  favor  of  all  trains  moving 
west,  and  I  called  on  the  conductor  for  an  explanation  ;  he  said  he  had 


193 

wired  the  exact  situation  to  his  superintendent  but  no  satisfactory  in- 
structions had  been  received  in  return.  I  then  requested  him  to  ac- 
company me  to  the  train  dispatcher,  who  occupied  a  bungalow  at  one 
side  of  the  track,  and  introduce  me,  which  he  did. 

The  dispatcher  was  told  sufificient  of  the  situation  to  interest  him, 
and  he  was  then  requested  to  place  me  in  direct  communication  with 
Mr.  Platte  who,  I  believe,  was  then  assistant  general  manager  of  the 
system  at  San  Francisco.  This  was  done,  and  I  telegraphed  him  that 
the  train  had  been  unavoidably  delayed  half  an  hour  at  Sacramento, 
repairing  a  drawhead,  twice  by  couplings  breaking  while  ascending  the 
mountain,  and  once  by  the  explosion  of  a  torpedo  which  had  been 
placed  upon  the  track  by  a  flagman  who  had  then  taken  a  position 
farther  east  on  the  track  and  was  waving  his  flag  vigorously  to  stop 
the  train  before  it  arrived  at  a  point  where  a  gang  of  track  men  were 
making  repairs.  When  the  explosion  occurred  the  guards  sprang  to 
their  feet,  arms  in  hand,  ready  for  the  aftermath,  but  quick  inspec- 
tion showed  the  character  of  the  alarm  and  doubtless  saved  the  flag- 
man's life^  which  was  endangered  by  exposure  to  the  arms  in  the 
hands  of  the  guards  who  had  him  covered. 

Mr.  Platte  was  told  that  these  different  delays  aggregated  more 
than  three  hours ;  that  we  were  ready  for  a  contest  with  his  regular 
schedule  time  and  were  surprised  to  be  side-tracked  to  let  freight  and 
all  other  west-bound  trains  pass  us,  especially  in  view  of  the  agreement 
that  the  train  was  to  run  only  ten  minutes  behind  the  Fast  Mail,  which 
was  to  act  as  our  pilot  over  the  full  length  of  the  main  line  of  the 
Central  Pacific  Railway.  This  was  impossible  then.  Therefore,  I 
said  I  would  be  pleased  if  he  would  "cut  us  loose"  and  overtake  the 
Fast  Mail  as  soon  as  possible.  This  he  promised  and  commenced  to 
execute  immediately.  We  moved  down  the  east  slope  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  at  a  spanking  rate  of  speed,  passing  along  the  banks  of  the 
Truckee  River,  which  flows  from  Lake  Tahoe  in  an  irregular  course, 
northeast,  to  Wadsworth,  Nevada,  and  thence  north  into  Pyramid 
Lake,  distant  about  seventy  miles.  We  stopped  for  water  at  Wads- 
worth  and  then  commenced  speeding  through  a  valley  full  of  lakes 
and  sink  holes,  vanishing  and  reappearing  streams,  until  we  passed 
Humboldt  Lake  about  fourteen  miles  southwest  of  Lovelock  Station, 
a  lake  into  which  the  Humboldt  River,  the  longest  in  the  state,  dis- 
appears after  running  a  very  irregular  course,  west  by  southwest, 
nearly  300  miles.  This  river  rises  in  Elko  County  and  has  many 
tributaries. 

When  we  commenced  lashing  the  Humboldt's  shores  our  engine 
was  aroused  and  the  tail  end  of  the  train  cracked  like  chain  lightning; 


193 

this  alarmed  me  somewhat  because  the  distance  between  stations 
ranged  from  twelve  to  thirty-three  miles,  and  the  roadbed  was  as 
crooked  as  the  river.  We  were  running  at  sixty-five  miles  per  hour 
and  my  alarm  was  caused  by  the  danger  of  the  whole  train  or  a  part 
of  it  being  swung  around  some  of  the  many  curves  with  so  much  force 
as  to  derail  it  and  that  would  have  been  a  very  serious  matter.  The 
derailed  portion  of  the  train  would  have  been  broken  up,  some  of  the 
guards  would  have  been  killed  and  it  would  have  been  very  difficult 
to  secure  sound  cars  to  transfer  into,  the  distance  between  stations  be- 
ing a  great  obstacle.  I  therefore  sent  one  of  my  boys  over  the  tender 
to  the  engineer  with  instruction  to  tell  him  that  I  said  he  was  showing 
very  little  judgment  in  the  handling  of  the  train ;  that  my  "cut  loose" 
was  for  New  York,  not  eternity.  The  engineer  came  back  to  the 
observation  car  at  the  next  coaling  and  watering  station,  I  was  on  the 
front  platform  to  meet  him ;  we  spoke  to  each  other  pleasantly,  and 
then  he  said,  "Your  opinion  of  me  is  about  correct.  I  ought  to  have 
known  better  than  to  run  at  such  a  rate  of  speed  on  such  a  track." 

I  replied,  "Nothing  serious  has  happened,  and  I  am  sure  you  will 
be  more  careful  after  this,  but  when  you  strike  a  good  piece  of  track, 
reasonably  straight,  you  can  let  the  engine  go  as  fast  as  steam  will 
carry  her,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned."  After  this  we  moved  along 
at  the  highest  rate  of  speed  that  safety  would  permit,  and  caught  up 
with  the  Fast  Mail  as  she  entered  the  yards  of  the  company  at  Ogden, 
Utah.  As  our  train  pulled  up  near  the  depot  we  were  greeted  with 
the  newsboys'  call  of  Salt  Lake  City  morning  papers,  containing  an- 
nouncements of  the  shipment  of  gold  coin  from  San  Francisco,  Cal., 
and  the  sound  of  the  gong  announcing  to  the  hungry  that  breakfast  was 
ready  in  the  restaurant. 

As  has  been  said,  we  departed  from  San  Francisco  Thursday 
evening,  August  4,  1893,  with  enough  provisions,  cold  food,  canned 
meats,  fruits,  etc.,  in  our  cars  to  supply  us  comfortably  until  we  arrived 
at  Ogden,  and  further  if  necessity  arose,  and  had  subsisted  upon  it 
exclusively  until  we  pulled  up  to  the  Ogden  depot.  It  had  been  ar- 
ranged to  carry  out  the  relief  system  with  respect  to  meals  after 
arriving  at  Ogden  as  we  were  doing  with  respect  to  the  great  treasure 
in  our  charge.  This  was  the  only  way  to  insure  warm  meals  to  all 
and  maintain  thorough  protection  over  our  charge ;  this  was  done  by 
requiring  five  guards  in  each  car  to  turn  over  to  the  remaining  five 
their  arms  and  ammunition  and  then  proceed  in  a  nonchalant  manner 
to  the  restaurant,  eat  quickly  and  resume  their  posts  in  their  respective 
cars  after  giving  the  countersign ;  the  second  relief  then  proceeded  as 
the  first  had. 


194 

Forty  minutes  were  occupied  in  this  manner,  and  then  we  resumed 
our  journey  east,  but  as  the  first  section  of  the  Omaha  &  Ogden  Fast 
Mail,  a  position  we  retained  until  Green  River  was  reached,  where 
supper  was  partaken  of,  as  breakfast  had  been,  and  we  then  made  the 
run  to  Rawlins,  Wyo.,  as  the  second  section,  stopped  there 
to  change  engineers  and  engines.  The  relief  engineer  protested 
against  taking  the  train  out ;  said  he  had  been  "held  up" 
twice  down  the  road  near  a  big  tree  standing  isolated  on  the 
plains.  It  was  represented  to  him  that  he  would  be  thoroughly  pro- 
tected  during  every  minute  of  his  run ;  that  it  would  be  impossible  for 
a  gang  of  outlaws  to  interfere  with  him  or  his  engine,  for  there  was 
a  corps  of  fifty-one  well-armed  guards  in  the  cars  behind  him,  who 
intended  to  stake  everything  on  it,  and  that  he  must  make  the  run  and 
pay  no  attention  to  signals,  flags  or  lanterns,  but  send  his  engine  on 
under  full  headway  at  my  risk  until  that  tree  was  west  instead  of  east 
of  us.  This  he  did,  and  not  long  after  he  left  us  at  Laramie,  Wyo. 
Soon  we  were  climbing  the  west  slope  of  the  Rockies,  and  when 
we  stopped  at  Sherman  we  stood  on  the  summit  of  this  trans-conti- 
nental line  with  the  muzzles  of  some  of  our  guns  pointing  in  the  faces 
of  tramps  who  were  seeking  free  rides  and  repose  on  the  platforms 
of  Uncle  Sam's  flying  treasure  houses,  unconscious  of  their  close 
proximity  to  great  wealth.  Hearing  the  low  hum  of  voices,  and  the 
shufiling  of  feet  on  the  outside,  we  deemed  it  best  to  investigate,  and 
some  of  the  guards  were  marshalled  in  the  space  inside  of  the  cars, 
directly  in  front  of  two  of  the  doors,  their  guns  brought  to  a  level, 
the  two  doors  opened,  the  muzzles  thrust  through  the  openings,  the 
character  of  the  disturbance  discovered  and  those  causing  it  sent  flying 
into  the  wilderness. 

Our  next  stop  was  at  Cheyenne,  Wyo.,  where  the  long,  gradual 
descent  of  the  plains  commences  only  to  end  on  the  bank  of  the 
Missouri  River.  We  expected  to  make  a  fast  run  over  the  intervening 
500  miles  of  track,  and  did  make  sixty-five  miles  per  hour  for  some 
time,  but  after  passing  into  Nebraska  the  engine  slipped  an  eccentric 
and  we  arrived  at  Omaha,  Neb.,  three  hours  late. 

We  left  that  point  as  soon  as  the  engine  could  be  exchanged  for 
another,  intending  to  make  up  our  lost  time  before  reaching  Chicago, 
but  owing  to  hot  boxes  and  the  number  of  special  trains  we  met  carry- 
ing Knights  Templar  to  Denver,  Col.,  we  arrived  one  hour  and  twenty 
minutes  late,  notwithstanding  we  ran  many  miles  at  the  rate  of  seventy 
miles  per  hour.  For  some  reason  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  South- 
ern Railway  did  not  make  up  any  time;  in  fact  we  arrived  at  Buffalo 


195 

one  hour  and  forty  minutes  late,  twenty  minutes  later  than  when  we  left 
Chicago.  We  arrived  at  Buffalo  at  1 :20  a.  m.,  the  9th,  but  Vice-Presi- 
dent H.  Walter  Webb,  New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  Company, 
was  determined,  we  were  told,  to  land  the  train  in  New  York  City  on 
time.  Engine  No.  880  was  selected  for  the  work,  and  she  accomplished 
it,  but  it  was  a  lively  ride.  The  train  moved  without  friction,  no 
swinging  or  rolling,  no  disturbance  of  her  equilibrium,  save  at  a 
point  east  of  Rochester,  I  think,  when  she  came  down  with  a  tremen- 
dous jolt,  and  bounded  as  if  she  had  run  against  the  end  of  a  broken 
rail,  trembled  and  moved  forward  as  before,  smoothly,  a  mellow, 
pleasant  sound  greeting  the  ear,  her  equilibrium  restored. 

There  was  nothing  to  disturb  the  peace  of  anyone,  even  as  the 
train  swept  around  the  curves  that  wind  in  and  out  of  the  shore  line 
of  the  beautiful  Hudson.  I  am  sure  that  all  the  members  of  that 
faithful  band  drank  deep  of  the  majestic  and  peaceful  scenery  that 
greeted  us  that  splendid  morning  as  the  sun  rose  above  West  Point, 
the  Catskills,  the  Palisades,  and  many  other  gems  on  the  west  shore 
of  the  river  and  distributed  its  fulgency  over  the  waters  500  feet  be- 
low, flowing  gently  to  the  sea,  and  the  other  more  modest,  but  soul- 
inspiring  scenes  of  nature  and  art  on  the  east  shore.  As  we  looked  we 
realized  that  there  is  no  other  country  like  our  own  and  that  we  had 
been  in  the  keeping  of  Providence  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
our  journey. 

At  10  :46  a.  m.,  August  9,  1892,  "The  Gold  Train"  came  to  a  dead 
stop  in  the  Grand  Central  Depot  in  New  York  City,  the  run  being 
ended  successfully.  We  found  waiting  to  welcome  us  Hon.  J.  Lowrie 
Bell,  Mr.  H.  Walter  Webb,  vice-president  of  the  New  York  Central 
&  Hudson  River  R.  R. ;  Gen'l  Supt.  Vorhees  of  the  same  line ;  Mr.  J. 
D.  Lang,  general  manager  West  Shore  road,  and  Ex-postmaster  Gen- 
eral Thomas  L.  James,  and  many  others  prominent  in  public  and  busi- 
ness life,  as  well  as  a  vast  concourse  who  had  come  to  witness  some- 
thing unusual  and  meritorious.  Being  informed  of  the  facilities  pro- 
vided for  the  transfer  of  the  registered  boxes  from  the  depot  to  the 
sub-treasury,  I  had  the  carbines,  extra  ammunition,  equipment,  camp 
stools,  mattresses,  etc.,  placed  in  the  officers'  car  under  guard,  and 
shortly  afterwards  in  charge  of  Supt.  Pepper  temporarily.  Then  the 
doors  on  the  discharging  side  of  the  cars  were  unlocked,  opened  and 
guards  stationed  at  each.  The  gates  to  the  yards  were  opened  and 
five  wagons  were  loaded  as  quickly  as  possible,  the  boxes  being  checked 
out  of  the  cars  into  the  wagon,  then  two  armed  guards  were  placed  on 
each  wagon,  with  the  driver.    I  had  sent  Supt.  Troy  to  the  sub-treasury 


196 


with  a  book,  in  which  the  500  boxes  were  entered  by  number,  with  in- 
structions to  check  them  out  of  the  wagon  and  my  custody  into  the 
custody  of  Postmaster  Van  Cott  at  the  sub-treasury. 

The  New  York  Morning  Advertiser  said  in  the  next  day's  issue: 
"Superintendent  White  decided  that  the  drive  to  the  sub-treasury  in 
Wall  street,  where  the  gold  was  to  be  deposited,  should  be  proces- 
sional. The  vans  were  to  be  driven  in  as  close  proximity  as  possible. 
In  the  event  of  a  breakdown,  or  accident  of  any  kind,  it  was  understood 
that  every  driver  should  pull  his  team  down,  then  close  up  together 
and  stop  until  orders  were  received  to  go  on." 

The  wagons,  five  in  number,  left  the  Grand  Central  at  11 :50  a. 
m.,  at  12  :40  p.  m.  the  first  group  of  five  commenced  to  pull  up  at  the 
Pine  street  entrance  of  the  sub-treasury.  In  a  short  time  five  more 
followed,  and  shortly  thereafter  the  last  four  were  en  route,  all  were 
unloaded,  the  boxes  checked  ofif,  placed  in  the  vaults  and  a  receipt 
given  to  me  for  them  by  Postmaster  Van  Cott  of  New  York  City. 

In  charge  of  the  train :  James  E.  White,  General  Superinten- 
dent, R.  M.  S.;  in  direct  charge  of  guards  and  cars,  Superintendents 
Lewis  L.  Troy,  Norman  Perkins,  George  W.  Pepper,  Samuel  Flint 
and  Assistant  Superintendent  Frank  W.  Vaille ;  these  last  five  each 
being  in  charge  of  a  car^,  and  in  each  car  were  nine  other  faithful,  in- 
telligent and  reliable  men — most  of  them  ex-soldiers  of  the  Civil  War. 
They  were : 


A.rmstrong,  H.  B. 
Auld,  Royal  J. 
Bradley,  A.  J. 
Boyd,  Lynn 
Boyle,  C.  J. 
Buck,  E.  H. 
Bunn,  F.  S. 
Bittenbender,  C.  H. 
Crary,  L.  H. 
Cutts,  Geo.  B. 
DeMoe,  C.  E. 
Donnelly,  R.  M. 
Dooley,  John  E. 
Eaton,  W.  C. 
Fishel,  John 


Fry,  W.  H. 
Geddings,  W.  D. 
Grow,  E.  F. 
Grubb,  S.  A. 
Hamlin,  A.  J. 
Heath,  Geo.  H. 
Hobbs,  Clarence  L. 
Irvine,  E.  A. 
Lansing,  H.  J. 
Le  Roy,  J.  L. 
Mahahon,  A.  C. 
Meredith,  William 
Miller,  Abraham 
Moore,  I.  R. 
Morse,  John  E. 


Partridge,  Karl 
Phillips,  A.  M. 
Potts,  John  J. 
Roberts,  Homer 
Ross,  Sidney  A. 
Shafifer.  C.  L. 
Shepherd,  J.  W. 
Shevels,  Robert 
Southwick,  Frank  L. 
Taylor,  J.  A. 
Vandervoort,  W.  C. 
Warren,  J.  A. 
Whitney,  Frank  E. 
Wilson,  W.  P. 
Wright,  Abram 


For  the  manly  manner  in  which  these  splendid  boys  had  borne 
themselves,  their  perfect  observance  of  discipline,  their  intelligent 
comprehension  of  duty  and  responsibility,  and  their  moral  and  upright 


Hon.  Georgk  W.  Pepper 

Superintendent  Ninth  Division  R.  M.  S. 
(See  Appendix) 


197 

conduct  and  absolute  fearlessness  the  Post  Office  Department  per- 
mitted them  to  remain  in  New  York  City  and  vicinity  two  days,  a 
courtesy  they  enjoyed  greatly. 

The  arms,  ammunition,  equipment  and  other  ordnance  stores  I 
had  drawn  from  the  Benicia  arsenal,  I  placed  in  temporary  charge  of 
Supt.  Pepper,  with  instructions  to  meet  me  in  New  York  whenever  I 
notified  him,  that  we  might  turn  it  over  to  the  commanding  officer  of 
the  New  York  arsenal,  Governor's  Island,  New  York  Harbor.  This 
we  did  on  the  19th  of  August,  1892,  and  on  the  25th  of  the  same 
month  I  received  a  receipt  in  full  signed  by  Major  Clifton  Comty. 

The  disbursements  made  on  account  of  the  Gold  Train  were 
$1,640.86. 

OBSTRUCTING  TRAINS  CARRYING  THE  MAIL. 

Mention  is  made  in  these  pages  of  mails  en  route  to  destinations 
being  delayed  in  transit  through  interference  with  the  trains  trans- 
porting them  in  pursuance  of  law  and  agreement,  by  employees  of  the 
companies,  and  their  sympathizers,  who  were  frequently  incited  to 
acts  of  barbarism  by  the  intemperate  language  and  conduct  of  their 
fellows  and  principals. 

Those  who  participated  officially  in  the  obstruction  of  trains  were 
called  "strikers."  They  struck  to  enforce  recognition  of  demands  made 
by  the  association  to  which  they  belonged  on  account  of  real  or  fancied 
grievances ;  that  is,  they  quit  work,  "tied  up"  the  roads  upon  which  the 
demands  were  made,  until  they  were  conceded,  or  a  compromise 
effected,  unless  the  companies  were  fortunate  enough  to  secure  quali- 
fied men  to  fill  the  positions  vacated  voluntarily,  and  lawful  force  to 
protect  them  and  their  property.  This  the  "strikers"  and  their  sympa- 
thizers used  every  means  at  their  command,  fair  and  foul,  to  prevent. 
Usually  as  the  days  were  numbered  with  the  past  after  a  strike  was 
declared  on,  confidence  of  success  wavered  from  side  to  side  about  as 
frequently  as  the  stock  market  moved  up  and  down  under  the  influence 
of  the  "bulls"  and  "bears ;"  until  finally  a  desperate  determination  to 
succeed  took  possession  of  both  parties  to  the  controversy.  Then  fre- 
quently the  so-called  sympathizers,  the  natural-born  socialist  and  the 
anarchist  coming  into  his  own,  became  frantic  with  excitement  which 
soon  passed  into  the  more  feverish  condition  called  frenzy.  Then 
came  disorder,  destruction  of  life,  limbs,  and  property,  as  a  natural 
sequence,  until  the  guns  opened  ;  then  the  rabble  ran  and  hid. 

The  strike  of  1888,  which  was  declared  against  the  Chicago,  Bur- 
lington &  Quincy  Railroad  by  the  Brotherhood  of  Engineers  and  Fire- 
men, Chief  Arthur  in  command,  at  4  a.  m.,  February  27th,  of  that  year, 


198 

continued  for  about  six  weeks  and  spread  to  other  roads,  extending 
over  a  large  area  of  country.  At  that  time  my  family  resided  in  Wau- 
kegan,  Illinois,  a  suburb  of  Chicago  located  on  the  Milwaukee  division 
of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railway,  thirty-five  miles  out.  It  was 
my  custom,  when  not  traveling,  to  go  home  from  my  headquarters 
every  night  and  to  return  every  morning;  but  with  the  opening  of  the 
strike,  train  service  on  the  Burlington  (C.  B.  &  Q.)  became  very  irreg- 
ular, most  trains  being  dropped  temporarily  from  necessity,  and  we 
could  depend  for  mail  purposes  only  upon  the  east  and  west-bound 
Chicago  &  Union  Pacific  Transfer  fast  mail  trains.  (Union  Pacific 
Transfer,  Iowa,  is  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Missouri  River,  opposite 
Omaha,  Nebraska,  and  is  the  junction  of  half  a  score  of  railroad  lines.) 
These  two  trains  Chief  Arthur  assured  me  would  not  be  disturbed  by 
his  men;  that,  instead,  they  would  remain  in  charge  of  the  engines 
hauling  them,  and  would  handle  them  skillfully  as  long  as  desired. 

I  knew  that  "The  Burlington"  was  receiving  squads  of  engineers 
from  the  east  almost  daily,  and  that  sooner  or  later  these  men  would 
occupy  the  vacant  cabs.  They  were  members  of  the  organization 
known  as  "Knights  of  Labor,"  of  which  Mr.  Powderly  was  Chief. 
He  had  just  retired  from  the  employ  of  the  Reading  Railroad  on  ac- 
count of  an  unsuccessful  clash  with  President  Gowen.  As  they  arrived 
they  were  sequestered,  temporarily,  from  the  wiles  and  temptations  of 
the  offensive  hosts,  so  that  in  that  solemn  hour  they  might  reflect,  be 
examined  and  prepared  for  the  fray  unmolested ;  and  take  their  places 
quietly  and  determinedly  in  the  corps  that  I  knew  was  formed  to  fight 
to  the  finish.  As  time  moved  on  the  passenger  and  freight  trains  that 
had  been  cut  out  were  restored  gradually — as  fast  as  these  engineers 
and  firemen  became  acquainted  with  the  engines  and  the  track,  and  were 
properly  guarded.  It  should  be  remembered,  when  commenting  on 
this  feature  of  the  case,  that  the  Brotherhood  firemen  vacated  the 
engines  with  their  engineers,  thus  compelling  those  who  succeeded  them 
to  become  acquainted  with  their  machines  and  the  course  over  which 
they  were  to  run,  without  coaching,  or  assistance  of  any  kind — good, 
bad  or  indifferent.  If  this  is  remembered,  and  the  extent  of  the  differ- 
ent lines  of  the  system  involved  considered,  the  time  that  preceded 
the  restoration  of  full  train  service  will  not  seem  great ;  the  wonder 
will  be  that  it  was  accomplished  so  quickly ;  there  was  no  sluggishness, 
want  of  energy,  or  lack  of  gray  matter.  The  routes  involved  in  the 
strike  extended  from  Chicago  to  Omaha,  Neb. ;  Kansas  City,  Mo. ; 
Denver,  Col. ;  Billings,  Mont. ;  Cheyenne,  Wyo.,  and  St.  Paul,  Minn. 
Burned-out  and  broken-down  engines  and  wrecked  trains  were  not  un- 


199 

familiar  objects  on  these  lines;  losses  which  added  to  the  difficulties  of 
the  situation  and  forced  the  equipment  and  number  of  trains  to  the 
minimum,  notwithstanding  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  ex- 
tra were  expended  in  the  effort  to  restore  full  train  service ;  to  furnish 
their  patrons  with  all  customary  facilities  and  supplies  while  the 
strikers  and  their  allies  pulled  the  other  way  with  equal  vigor  and  for 
selfish  ends.  The  company  was  trying  to  serve  the  public ;  the  strikers 
were  trying  to  make  the  public  serve  them. 

During  the  whole  time  the  strike  was  on,  I  remained  in  Chicago 
night  and  day,  spending  much  of  my  time  at  the  headquarters  of  the 
Brotherhood,  in  railway  offices,  and  at  the  depots,  trying  to  keep  posted ; 
the  last  official  act  that  I  performed  each  night  was  to  digest  the  infor- 
mation gathered  during  the  day  and  to  telegraph  the  result  and  my  con- 
clusions to  the  General  Superintendent  at  Washington,  D.  C,  for  his 
information  and  that  of  the  Postmaster  General.  When  I  slept  it  was 
on  a  cot  in  my  office,  but,  as  a  rule,  I  did  not  return  to  the  office  from 
telegraphing  until  after  3  a.  m.,  the  hour  of  the  fast  mail  departure 
west.  One  night  I  retired  much  earlier,  tired  and  worn ;  that  night, 
for  the  first  time,  Chief  Arthur's  men  failed  to  take  the  fast  mail  out, 
and  officers  of  the  road  who  had  some  experience  in  that  line  in  their 
younger  days,  manned  the  engine  and  started  the  train  on  its  westward 
trip.  We  were  insisting  that  the  companies  perform  mail  service  at 
least  six  times  a  week,  in  both  directions,  over  all  their  routes,  whether 
they  transacted  other  business  or  not,  and  this  doubtless  influenced 
these  officers  to  take  the  course  that  they  did  that  morning;  but  they 
had  undertaken  to  meet  the  policy  of  the  Department  on  all  their  lines 
and  were  making  good,  notwithstanding  enormous  losses.  That  policy 
was  not  protective  enough.  The  strike  was  responsible  for  some 
serious  accidents.  One  such  occurred  on  the  first  day  it  opened,  in 
which  five  clerks  were  injured,  and  nine  other  accidents  which  oc- 
curred on  the  system  were  due  to  the  disarrangement  occasioned  by 
the  strike. 

When  Mr.  Nash — the  General  Superintendent — came  to  Chicago 
to  take  observations  and  to  transact  some  other  important  business,  he 
insisted  upon  my  taking  quarters  in  a  good  hotel  and  eating  nutritious 
food  and  having  as  much  rest  as  the  emergency  would  permit  as  long 
as  it  lasted.  I  complied,  and  when  he  returned  to  Washington  he  ar- 
ranged to  have  me  reimbursed  for  this  extraordinary  expenditure,  for 
all  of  which  I  am  thankful  to  him. 

Watching  both  parties  to  the  controversy  as  closely  as  I  did  all  the 
time,  and  being  received  so  pleasantly,  as  I  was  by  both,  I  could  not 


200 

avoid  absorbing  information  which  forced  me  to  form  opinions  of  the 
situation  from  day  to  day,  and  several  days  before  the  strike  was  de- 
clared ofif  I  was  sure  that  the  end  was  at  hand,  and  was  on  the  "ground 
floor"  when  the  "bottom  dropped  out." 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  Postmaster  General  Dickinson's  views 
respecting  the  manner  in  which  the  Department's  interests  were  at- 
tended to  during  the  strike.     Of  course,  they  pleased  me  very  much. 

"Mr.  Dickinson  being  in  so  genial  a  mood  because  of  the  solution 
of  the  complications  connected  with  the  postmastership  was  asked  if 
the  current  reports  that  the  removals  were  to  continue  in  the  Chicago 
office  were  true ;  especially  whether  it  was  a  fact  that  Captain  James 
E.  White,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service  of  that 
division,  was  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  railway  mail  superintendents 
of  New  York  and  Cincinnati,  Mr.  Dickinson  said: 

"Whatever  they  may  say  of  me  a  good  many  efficient  men  have 
been  retained  in  the  service  if  they  are  Republicans.  Captain  White  is 
a  very  valuable  man  to  the  Department  and  his  services  will  not  be 
dispensed  with.  I  shall  never  forget  the  rare  good  sense,  tact  and 
judgment  that  he  displayed  during  the  six  weeks  when  the  Post  Office 
Department  was  insisting  that  the  railroads  should  carry  the  mails, 
notwithstanding  the  strike.  The  Department  was  at  that  time  deter- 
mined to  establish  valuable  precedents  as  to  post  roads  over  railroads. 
We  were  endeavoring  to  lay  down  the  principle  that  the  railroads  must 
carry  the  mails  if  they  did  no  other  business.  Captain  White  did  not 
make  a  mistake  all  through  that  crisis.  I  remained  at  the  Department 
many  a  night  until  late  into  the  night  in  conference  with  him  as  to  the 
situation  and  he  was  always  clear-headed,  firm  and  accurate  in  his 
judgment,  and  never  made  a  mistake  at  a  time  when  a  mistake  might 
have  proved  very  serious  for  the  Government.  No,  I  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  saying  that  Captain  White  will  not  be  removed." 

The  Intcr-Occan  added : 

"It  will  be  seen  that  the  Postmaster  General  has  learned  to  have 
the  same  opinion  of  the  executive  and  business  ability  of  Captain 
Wliite  as  has  long  been  entertained  by  the  general  public." 

It  was  hoped  that  this  experience  would  cause  either  the  execu- 
tive or  legislative  branch  of  the  Government  to  take  such  action  as 
would  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of  Section  711,  Postal  Laws 
and  Regulations,  (Revised  Statutes,  Section  4,000),  but  no  action  of 
any  kind  whatsoever  was  taken  until  1893,  when  it  seemed  to  me 
about  time   for  another  eruption  to  break  out,   involving  the   trans- 


201 

portation  of  the  mail,  and  I  treated  the  subject  in  my  annual  report 
for  the  fiscal  year,  1893,  and  again  in  1894,  the  first  being  before  the 
furious  trouble  that  broke  out  on  the  Great  Northern  Railway  in  April, 
1894,  and  continued  into  May  of  the  same  year;  the  second,  after  the 
most  stupendous  strike  of  the  age,  which  raged  with  fury  over  almost 
the  entire  west  from  June  27  to  July  24,  1894.  The  subject  received 
its  third  treatment  in  my  report  for  the  fiscal  year,  1896. 

Mr.  Bissell  became  Postmaster  General  in  March,  1893.  In  my 
judgment  he  was  one  of  the  strongest  men  who  ever  occupied  that 
office ;  he  was  governed  by  sound  principles ;  but  I  shall  have  the 
honor  to  speak  of  him  further  on  more  fully. 

When  the  fiscal  year  1893  was  ended,  and  I  commenced  to 
write  the  recommendations  I  purposed  making  in  the  annual  report 
for  that  year,  this  subject  knocked  hard  for  admission.  No  one  had 
said  anything  to  me  regarding  it,  but  my  own  experience  in  four  strikes 
showed  me  that  we  were  not  prepared  to  handle  interferences ;  forcible,, 
violent  interferences,  with  a  business  of  which  the  Government  has  a 
monoply,  and  which  it  administers  for  the  people  without  hope  or  de- 
sire for  profit,  successfully,  with  that  vigor,  positiveness,  celerity  and 
justice  to  all  that  denotes  authority,  power  and  greatness;  without 
which  attributes  any  government  must  be  mediocre  and  hardly  worthy 
the  name. 

It  seemed  to  me  then,  and  had  for  many  years,  in  cases  where  the 
mails  were  being  transported  regularly  by  authority  of  the  Postmaster 
General  or  his  representative,  that  they  should  be  so  continued  and 
protected  by  the  Government  through  stress  and  storm  of  man's  mak- 
ing. Any  other  course  I  believed  would  not  be  just  to  the  companies 
or  to  the  patrons  of  the  Government,  who  should  not  be  deprived  of 
any  mail  facilities,  the  frequency  of  supply  that  they  had  been  enjoy- 
ing, because  of  the  timidity — political  or  otherwise — of  those  having 
the  power  and  authority  to  prevent  it,  and  I  believed  that  allowing  it 
would  discredit  the  nation.  The  decision  of  the  Government  that  a 
company  fulfilled  its  obligations  sufficiently  to  entitle  it  to  the  full  com- 
pensation allowed  by  law,  if  it  maintained  service  once  daily  in  each 
direction  to  destinations  over  routes  upon  which  the  full  customary 
number  of  trips  were  prevented  by  the  strikers  and  their  allies,  was 
not  righteous  or  fearless,  for  it  disregarded  the  interests  of  its  j^atrons 
and  abandoned  the  shippers,  the  merchants,  the  physicians,  and  the 
traveling  public  dependent  on  the  blocked  lines.  So,  too,  the  decision 
that  a  company  in  the  throes  of  a  strike  must  perform  service  once  daily 
each  way  over  its  lines  if  it  did  no  other  business,  seemed  to  me  unjust, 


202 

shirking  responsibilities,  licensing  lawlessness  as  to  the  other  trains, 
and  unworthy  of  our  country. 

Believing  this,  I  wrote  the  following  for  my  1893  annual  report 
and  submitted  it  to  Postmaster  General  Bissell,  who  had  me  stand  in 
front  of  him  and  read  it,  as  he  had  me  do  sometimes  with  other  matters 
to  which  I  requested  him  to  give  his  personal  consideration.  He 
listened  attentively,  approved  the  bill  that  I  had  drawn,  the  statement 
and  recommendation,  and  instructed  me  to  put  it  in  my  report. 

"Obstructing  Trains  Carrying  the;  Mails. 

"To  this  end  a  bill  was  submitted  with  the  report,  copy  of  which, 
with  the  remarks  preceding  it,  is  given  here : 

"It  will  be  conceded  that  the  most  frequent  interchange  of  mails 
possible  between  important  commercial  and  financial  centers  is  neces- 
sary to  the  proper  and  profitable  transaction  of  business,  and  that  the 
growth  of  the  nation  in  civilization,  population,  wealth,  and  all  that 
constitutes  greatness  is  in  proportion  to  the  general  prosperity  of  its 
citizens ;  therefore  anything  tending  to  impede  the  growth  of  business, 
to  retard  the  transaction  of  the  same,  or  to  cause  a  decrease  of  the 
general  wealth  of  the  country  operates  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
Government  and  should  be  remedied  by  law. 

"In  times  of  peace  and  prosperity  business  flows  on  as  persist- 
ently, regularly,  and  quietly  as  a  stream  passing  through  a  level  valley ; 
all  that  is  conducive  to  business  interests  and  to  the  peace  and  comfort 
of  the  people  is  responsive.  The  mails  are  dispatched  by  and  received 
from  nearly  every  passenger  train  passing  over  railway  lines.  On 
some  trains  they  are  carried  in  railway  post  offices,  on  others  in  the 
baggage  cars  in  charge  of  train  baggagemen ;  but  in  every  case  they  go 
through  to  their  destination  without  other  interruption  than  such  as 
results  from  accidents,  and  in  this  way  cities  upon  important  routes 
communicate  with  one  another  two,  three,  four,  five,  or  six  times 
daily,  and  realize  by  this  frequent  service  much  better  results  than  are 
possible  in  any  other  way. 

"But  local  disturbances  occasionally  occur  between  an  important 
railway  system  and  its  employees,  between  two  railway  companies  as 
to  the  right  of  way,  or  between  the  corporate  authority  of  a  city  and 
a  railway  company,  and  peace  in  the  vicinity  of  the  trouble  gives  wav 
to  violence,  destruction  of  life  and  property,  and  the  mail  service 
throughout  the  whole  country  is  thereby  partially  or  wholly  inter- 
rupted, failing  to  meet  the  needs  of  business  and  causing  losses  of 
greater  or  less  magnitude  to  those  engaged  in  it.  Moneys  due  and 
forwarded  in  time  to  meet  obligations  fail  to  arrive  as  expected,  notes 


203 

and  drafts  are  protested,  mortgages  foreclosed,  sales  made  are  not 
consummated,  and  the  financial  standing  of  individuals  and  firms  is 
jeopardized,  all  because  some  organization  or  association  has  deter- 
mined to  put  a  break  upon  the  business,  not  only  of  the  company  with 
which  it  is  temporarily  at  war,  but  of  the  whole  world,  if  possible, 
until  it  secures  its  demands.  In  doing  this  they  say  to  the  agents  of 
the  railroad  company :  'We  will  permit  the  mails  to  pass,  but 
no  baggage,  express,  or  passenger  cars  will  be  allowed  to  do  so ;'  and 
the  railway  company  says :  'We  cannot  afford  to  run  a  train  of  one  or 
two  cars  devoted  to  the  mails  exclusively.'  Sometimes  the  company 
performs  service  once  daily  each  way  over  its  lines,  and  thus  technically 
fulfills  its  obligations  to  the  Government  sufificiently  to  prevent  the 
withholding  or  reduction  of  its  pay,  for  the  obligation  includes  the 
carriage  of  the  mails  six  times  per  week  each  way,  or  as  much  oftener 
as  passenger  trains  may  run.  The  company  in  such  a  case  is  not  only 
willing,  but  anxious  to  continue  all  of  its  passenger  trains  and  to  carry 
mails  upon  each ;  but  it  is  not  willing  to  drop  other  business  usually 
transacted  on  these  trains  and  to  run  a  mail  car  or  a  baggage  car  con- 
taining only  mail  in  place  of  every  passenger  train  scheduled,  nor 
should  it  be  expected  to.  Sometimes  strikes  occur  upon  lines  that  are  in 
financial  distress  and  unable  to  run  a  train  consisting  of  one  car  only, 
with  an  apartment  from  15  to  25  feet  in  length  devoted  to  the  mails; 
therefore  no  service  is  performed  upon  that  line  during  the  contin- 
uance of  the  strike,  the  company  forfeiting  its  pay  rather  than  to  in- 
cur expense  exceeding  the  compensation  received. 

"In  all  cases  of  the  nature  mentioned  the  public  is  deprived  of  at 
least  one-half  of  its  regular  mail  accommodations,  and  in  some 
instances,  of  all,  or  nearly  all,  as  is  shown  in  the  following  statement : 

"The  two  most  important  mail  routes  in  the  United  States  are  the 
New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  Railroad  (main  line.  New  York 
to  Chicago)  and  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  (New  York  to  St.  Louis). 

"Two  exclusive  mail  trains  are  run  daily  each  way  over  the 
former,  and  in  addition  twenty-five  passenger  trains  carry  mail  west- 
ward and  thirty-one  eastward.  All  of  this  service  is  provided  because 
it  is  demanded  by  the  business  interests  of  the  country  and  is  recog- 
nized as  desirable  by  the  Department.  It  is  not  to  be  understood  that 
the  lines  and  offices  tributary  to  this  route  receive  and  dispatch  mails  by 
all  of  these  trains,  but  that  all  carry  mails  to  and  from  some  offices  and 
lines.  What  mails  shall  be  dispatched  by  certain  trains  depends  upon 
the  advantages  derived  thereby.  If  a  certain  number  of  trains  arrive 
at  a  given  office  in  the  night  it  is  not  necessary  to  dispatch  mails  for 


20i 

that  office  by  all  of  them.  It  is  sufficient  to  dispatch  it  by  the  last 
train  leaving  the  initial  point  in  time  to  permit  of  its  being  delivered  as 
soon  as  that  office  is  opened  in  the  morning,  thus  economizing  labor 
and  equipment  and  minimizing  exposure  to  depredation  or  loss  in 
transit.  The  same  principle  applies  to  dependent  lines ;  therefore  it 
will  be  seen  that  if  the  operating  of  train  service  is  not  protected  by 
law  the  condition  of  the  mail  service  in  periods  of  disturbance  will  be 
in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  very  detrimental  to  private  and  public  in- 
terests ;  for  should  a  strike  occur  upon  a  line  like  the  New  York  Central 
&  Hudson  River  Railroad  fifty-six  of  the  sixty  trains  carrying  the 
mail  would  be  abandoned,  simply  because  the  strikers  would  not  per- 
mit them  to  proceed  if  carrying  anything  besides  mail. 

"How  disastrous  this  would  be  no  one  can  understand  until  he 
realizes  that  the  New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  Railroad,  as  a 
mail  route,  derives  its  importance  from  the  fact  that  it  starts  from  the 
great  seaport  and  financial  center  of  the  country ;  that  the  mails  to  and 
from  Europe,  and  from  and  to  the  New  England  states,  for  and  from 
a  great  part  of  the  states  of  New  York,  Ohio,  Michigan,  and  Illinois, 
the  Dominion  of  Canada,  and  the  northwestern  and  western  states, 
Asia,  and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  pass  over  this  route,  and 
therefore  those  states  and  countries  are  involuntary  participants  in  the 
evil  effects  resulting  from  interruptions  to  train  service  on  that  system. 

"The  Pennsylvania  system  is  of  equal  importance,  for  it  com- 
mands the  south,  southwest,  portions  of  the  west,  the  countries  re- 
ferred to,  and  some  of  the  South  American  countries.  At  present  it 
carries  mails  westward  and  southward  on  forty  passenger  trains,  and 
eastward  and  northward  on  fifty.  If  the  conditions  spoken  of  arose 
in  New  Jersey  or  Pennsylvania  the  company  would  probably  be  per- 
mitted to  run  from  four  to  eight  of  these  trains,  consequently  the 
patrons  of  the  Department  would  be  deprived  of  the  benefits  that  they 
now  derive  from  either  eighty-two  or  eighty-six  trains,  and  this  de- 
privation would  be  seriously  embarrassing  at  times  and  should  not  be 
permitted. 

"As  the  Government  has  a  monoply  of  the  mails  it  would  seem 
to  be  its  duty  to  protect  its  customers,  particularly  as  it  can  easily  do 
so  by  passing  a  law  making  it  an  ofifense,  punishable  with  fine  and  im- 
prisonment, for  an  unauthorized  person  or  a  member  of  any  organi- 
zation or  association  to  interrupt  the  passage  of  a  train  carrying  United 
States  mail.  To  this  end  I  respectfully  recommend  the  passage  of  the 
following  bill,  or  a  better  one  if  possible,  as  early  as  may  be  practicable: 


205 

'A  Bill  to  prevent  unauthorized  persons  from  interfering  with  rail- 
road trains  carrying  the  United  States  mails  by  authority  of  the 
Postmaster  General  or  officers  of  the  Post  Office  Department. 

'Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  if  any  person  or 
persons,  acting  in  his  own  or  their  own  behalf,  or  as  the  agent  or  agents, 
or  as  a  member  or  members,  officer  or  officers,  or  as  the  representative 
or  representatives  of  any  organization  or  association,  shall  delay,  ob- 
struct, or  prevent  the  passage  of  any  train  on  any  railroad  in  the  United 
States  by  which  mails  are  being  transported  by  order  of  the  Post  Office 
Department,  the  same  having  been  designated  by  the  Postmaster  General 
or  his  authorized  agent  or  agents  to  carry  the  mails,  for  the  purpose 
of  aiding,  encouraging,  or  contributing  in  any  way  to  the  success  of  a 
strike  against  any  railroad  company  whose  trains  are  designated  as 
above,  or  for  any  unlawful  or  malicious  purpose,  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  an  offense  against  the  laws  of  the  United  States  of  America 
as  represented  in  this  act,  and,  on  conviction  thereof,  shall  be  punished 
by  a  fine  of  not  less  than  fifty  dollars  nor  more  than  five  hundred 
dollars,  and  be  imprisoned  for  not  less  than  six  months  nor  more  than 
two  years  for  each  offense.'  " 

In  my  report  for  1894  I  said  on  the  subject: 

"This  subject  received  considerable  attention  in  the  report  of  this 
office  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1893. 

"The  treatment  it  received  then  was  suggested  by  the  difficulties 
experienced  in  operating  the  railway  mail  service  during  the  existence 
of  labor  troubles  that  had  occurred  in  previous  years.  The  stupendous 
disturbances  of  April,  June  and  July  of  the  present  year  were  not  an- 
ticipated, but  having  faith  in  the  maxims,  'History  repeats  itself,'  and 
'In  times  of  peace  prepare  for  war,'  and,  knowing  from  actual  ex- 
perience that  the  provisions  relied  upon  to  prevent  the  mails  being 
obstructed  while  in  transit  or  to  successfully  grapple  with  an  emergency 
of  that  character  had  proved  inadequate  and  unsuccessful  in  the  past, 
it  was  deemed  highly  important  to  the  dignity  and  revenues  of  the 
Department  and  to  the  tranquillity,  comfort,  and  social  and  business 
relations  of  its  citizens  that  a  law  be  enacted  making  it  an  offense 
punishable  with  fine  and  imprisonment  for  any  person  to  knowingly 
and  willfully  obstruct  or  retard  the  passage  of  a  train  carrying  the 
mails.  This  law  should  be  so  free  from  ambiguity,  so  prohibitory  and 
repressive  in  its  character,  that  all  men  may  understand  it  if  they  will." 

(Then  follows  the  draft  of  the  proposed  bill.) 


206 

"Had  this  or  a  similar  bill  become  a  law  previous  to  April  1,  1894, 
it  is  believed  that  all  the  trains  carrying  mail  would  have  been  excepted 
from  the  embargo  placed  upon  the  train  service  of  the  Great  Northern 
Railway  when  the  strike,  which  practically  tied  up  that  system  from 
April  13th  until  May  1st,  was  ordered.  Such  a  law  would  have 
lessened  if  not  averted  the  destruction  of  property,  the  loss  of  life,  the 
paralysis  of  business,  the  hardships  and  pecuniary  losses  to  which  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  men  were  subjected,  and  as  well  prevented 
the  decrease  in  the  revenues  of  the  Department  and  the  increase  in  ex- 
penses of  the  Government  which  resulted  from  the  unparalleled  strikes 
which  raged  with  barbaric  fierceness  over  one-half  of  the  Republic 
from  June  27th  to  July  24th  of  the  present  year. 

"During  that  period  trains  ran  with  great  irregularity  and  many 
of  the  lines  centering  at  Chicago  from  the  east,  north  and  south  were 
operated  intermittently,  while  all  of  the  trans-continental  lines,  except 
the  Great  Northern,  which  was  seriously  impaired  by  washouts,  were 
effectually  blockaded.  The  mails  for  the  Pacific  coast  states,  Asia, 
the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  and  some  of  the  British  provinces  accumu- 
lated in  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  and  elsewhere,  waiting  to  be  dispatched  by 
the  first  line  opened.  During  the  continuance  of  the  strike  the  De- 
partment was  thoroughly  informed  of  the  condition  of  the  train  service 
on  all  the  lines  affected,  of  the  practicability  of  other  avenues  of  sup- 
ply, of  the  location  of  delayed  mails,  and  availed  itself  of  every  desir- 
able opportunity  presented  to  forward  the  mails  to  their  destination ; 
but  the  territory  covered  by  the  obstructed  lines  was  so  extensive  and 
in  some  instances  so  difficult  to  reach  that  it  could  not  afford  as  much 
relief  as  it  desired. 

"With  relation  to  the  mails  for  the  Pacific  coast  and  for  foreign 
countries,  supplied  thence  by  water  routes,  they  were  sometimes  for- 
warded by  the  Great  Northern,  sometimes  by  the  Santa  Fe,  and  at 
other  times  via  the  Union  Pacific  and  Northern  Pacific,  and  if  not 
delayed  by  washouts  or  mob  violence,  reached  their  destinations  ulti- 
mately ;  but  always  long  after  due.  Those  dispatched  by  the  two  first 
named  lines  were  forwarded  to  destination  by  steamers  sailing  from 
Portland,  Oregon ;  Tacoma  and  Seattle,  Washington ;  San  Francisco, 
Los  Angeles  and  San  Diego,  California,  as  the  route  by  w^hich  dis- 
patched from  the  east  indicated.  No  other  avenues  of  supply  were 
available  to  the  Department,  for  the  Southern  Pacific  lines  centering  at 
San  Francisco  from  Portland,  Oregon ;  Ogden,  Utah,  and  Los  Angeles, 
California,  were  almost  as  useless  as  before  they  were  surveyed.  They 
were  in  the  vice-like  grasp  of  a  mob  which  defied  state  authority  and 
resisted  the  militia  sent  to  quell  the  disturbance. 


Hon.   John  W.  Hoi<i.yday 

Ex-Chief  Clerk  to  the  General  Superintendent  R.  M.  S. 


207 

"It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  strike  would  have  extended  over  a 
much  greater  territory  than  it  did,  and  that  more  serious  obstructions 
to  the  mails  would  have  occurred,  had  not  the  Government  interposed 
and  employed  the  judicial  and  military  force  to  protect  its  interests 
and  those  of  its  citizens.  But  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  assume  that  the 
necessity  for  the  heroic  and  admirable  action  taken  would  not  have 
arisen,  with  respect  to  the  transportation  of  the  mails,  had  such  a  law 
as  has  been  referred  to  existed. 

"If,  then,  there  are  reasons  to  believe  that  obstructing  trains  carry- 
ing the  mails  can  be  prevented  by  enacting  a  law  prohibiting  it  and  pre- 
scribing suitable  penalties  for  violating  it,  why  should  it  not  be  done 
rather  than  permit  a  condition  to  exist  which  has,  and  will  as  long 
as  it  continues,  place  the  business  interests  of  the  country,  the  pros- 
perity and  happiness  of  the  people,  the  life  and  limbs  of  the  servants 
of  the  Government,  and  the  revenues  of  the  Department  at  the  mercy 
of  such  howling  mobs  as  disgraced  this  country  and  civilization  in 
Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Sacramento,  Battle  Creek,  Hammond,  Blue  Island 
and  elsewhere  in  April,  June  and  July  of  the  present  year  (1894)?" 

When  the  strike  against  the  Great  Northern  Railroad  was  de- 
clared, Mr.  Charles  Neilson,  then  Assistant  General  Superintendent 
of  the  Railway  Mail  Service,  was  in  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  and  immediately 
advised  our  office  of  the  situation.  It  was  clear  that  the  same  old 
nauseating  "bluff"  the  strikers  had  played  before  was  being  played 
again.  They  were  practically  "killing"  passenger  trains  carrying  mails 
in  pursuance  of  law,  telling  the  company  that  they  could  proceed  with 
the  mail  unmolested,  and  the  representatives  of  the  Post  Office  De- 
partment that  they  would  not  think  of  obstructing  the  transit  of  the 
mails ;  this,  too,  in  face  of  the  fact  that  the  companies'  obligation  was  to 
carry  the  mails  over  their  mail  routes  as  often  as  trains  ran  thereon, 
or  in  the  language  of  Revised  Statutes  4000,  "Every  railway  company 
carrying  the  mail  shall  carry  on  any  train  which  may  run  over  its  road,, 
and  without  extra  charge  therefor,  all  mailable  matter  directed  to  be 
carried  thereon,  with  the  person  in  charge  of  the  same." 

On  my  own  responsibility  I  had  met  this  fabrication  squarely  July 
27,  1877,  I  believed,  in  the  notice  given,  "To  Strikers,  Rioters,  and  Other 
Parties  Whomsoever,"  when  a  strike  was  in  progress  on  the  Chicago, 
Burlington  &  Quincy  Railway,  see  page  17,  and  was  anxious  that  in 
this  crisis  some  more  competent  and  learned  official  of  the  Government 
should  meet  it  under  practically  the  same  conditions  and  see  if 
he  would  not  reach  substantially  the  same  opinion.  I  was  then,  and 
am   now,   convinced   that   it   is   the   only   correct   and    logical   opinion 


308 

possible,  and  that  a  policy  based  upon  it  and  executed  fearlessly  will 
win  every  time. 

When  this  strike  was  declared,  Postmaster  General  Bissell  was  at 
his  home  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  After  examining,  with  the  assistance  of 
Mr.  Todd,  some  books  borrowed  from  the  office  of  the  Assistant  Attor- 
ney General  for  the  Post  Office  Department,  and  finding  decisions  I 
believed  applicable  to  the  case,  I  wrote  and  telegraphed  to  him,  citing 
these,  and  asking  him  to  write  or  telegraph  the  Attorney  General  to 
give  an  opinion  as  to  the  meaning  and  scope  of  the  law.  He  wired  me 
to  call  on  him  myself  and  to  lay  the  case  before  him.  I  called  at  his 
office,  but  was  told  that  Mr.  Olney  was  at  his  home  in  Massachusetts, 
and  was  referred  to  Mr.  Lawrence  Maxwell,  Jr.,  who  was  acting. 
I  called  upon  him,  presented  the  telegram  received  from  Mr.  Bissell 
and  some  papers  relating  to  the  case  submitted ;  was  asked  some  ques- 
tions, the  answers  to  which  were  taken  down,  and  a  corrected  state- 
ment in  duplicate  prepared.  Then  Judge  Maxwell  astonished  me  by 
saying,  "If  you  will  wait  a  few  minutes  you  can  take  the  opinion  to 
the  Department."  I  never  waited  for  anything  so  cheerfully  in  my  life. 
When  the  opinion  was  handed  to  me  I  read  it,  thanked  Judge  Maxwell, 
and  moved  as  fast  as  I  could  towards  my  office.  In  my  judgment, 
the  opinion  was  all  wool  and  much  more  than  a  yard  wide — wide 
enough  to  win  the  Great  Northern  and  Chicago  battles,  and  all  the 
others  that  occurred  during  that  calendar  year,  1894. 

The  opinion  read : 

"Department  oe  Justice, 

Washington,  D.  C.,  April  21,  1894. 
''The  Postmaster  General. 

"Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  com- 
munication of  to-day  relating  to  the  stoppage  of  passenger  trains 
carrying  mails  on  the  Great  Northern  Railway.  The  statutes  of  the 
United  States  provide  that  'every  railroad  company  carrying  the  mail 
shall  carry  on  any  train  which  may  run  over  its  route,  all  mailable 
matter  directed  to  be  carried  thereon,  with  the  person  in  charge  of  the 
same.'  The  statutes  also  make  it  an  offense  for  any  person  to  'know- 
ingly and  willfully  obstruct  or  retard  the  passage  of  a  train  carrying 
the  mail,'  and  that  it  is  no  excuse  that  such  person  is  willing  that  the 
mail  car  may  be  detached  and  run  separately.  He  is  bound  to  permit  the 
mail  to  be  carried  in  the  usual  and  ordinary  way,  such  as  is  contem- 
plated by  the  Act  of  Congress  and  directed  by  the  Postmaster  General. 
It  would  seem  from  your  statement  that  the  persons  who  have  entered 
into  the  combination  to  which  you  refer  have  brought  themselves  with- 


209 

in  the  further  provisions  of  the  statutes  of  the  United  States,  which 
declare  that  'If  two  or  more  persons  conspire  to  commit  an  offense 
against  the  United  States  and  one  or  more  of  such  parties  do  an  act 
to  effect  the  object  of  the  conspiracy,  all  the  parties  to  the  conspiracy 
shall  be  liable  to  a  penalty  of  not  less  than  one  thousand  dollars  and 
not  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  to  imprisonment  for  not  more 
than  two  years.' 

"Respectfully, 

"(Signed)     Lawrence  Maxwell,  Jr., 

"Acting  Attorney  General." 

During  the  continuance  of  this  strike,  I  received  a  telegraphic 
statement  of  the  condition  of  the  service  and  the  pulse  of  the  strikers 
every  forenoon  from  Supt.  Troy,  and  showed  it  to  the  Postmaster 
General ;  he  became  very  much  interested  in  it,  and  if  the  usual  time 
of  receiving  this  particular  telegram  arrived,  and  it  was  not  taken  to 
him,  he  would  call  for  it.  Of  course  it  could  not  be  taken  to  him  until 
it  arrived,  but  he  was  restless  until  he  had  seen  it.  This  telegram  was 
not  sent  from  Chicago  until  Mr.  Troy  had  seen  the  representatives  of 
the  railway  companies,  visited  the  stockyards,  seen  the  town  authori- 
ties, some  of  the  officials  of  the  strikers,  and  collected  all  the  news; 
it  was  an  important  telegram.  One  day  it  failed  to  arrive  when  due. 
I  called  on  Mr,  Bissell  a  little  while  after,  and  told  him  so,  but  I  said 
"Mr.  Troy  will  send  it  without  fail  as  soon  as  he  collects  the  news, 
and  he  is  doing  that  faithfully  and  as  cjuickly  as  he  can."  Hour  after 
hour  passed,  but  the  telegram  was  not  delivered.  The  Postmaster 
General  was  vexed  and  growing  more  so;  finally  I  wired  Troy  sub- 
stantially :  "No  telegram  since  last  night ;  hot ;  if  you  regard  your  own 
interests  wire  at  once."  Back  came  the  answer:  "Don't  understand. 
Sent  telegram  at  usual  hour."  Mr.  Troy  took  the  matter  up  with  the 
Chicago  telegraph  office ;  it  wired  Washington ;  Washington  found  it 
had  been  harboring  it  for  some  hours,  and  rushed  it  up  to  our  office 
with  explanations  and  apologies.  These  were  related  to  Mr.  Bissell 
and  he  asked  that  the  manager  call  on  him  next  morning,  which  he  did. 
The  interview  may  have  been  soulful,  but  it  was  not  a  symphony  of 
peace,  rest,  and  brotherly  love,  but  a  quickstep  in  promptness  and  a 
march  in  system.  During  the  interview  the  Postmaster  General  said 
that  the  error  in  handling  the  telegram  in  that  office  came  near  causing 
him  to  remove  Mr.  Troy,  one  of  the  best  officers  of  the  Department, 
etc.  To  prevent  more  errors  of  that  character  a  special  wire  was  run 
into  the  Department  building  to  give  me  direct  connection  with  Chica- 


310 

go  until  the  end  of  the  strike;  that  was  a  great  convenience,  avoided 
delays  and  unnecessary  expenditure  of  time. 

Mr.  Bissell  said  to  me  that  whenever  I  received  important  news 
after  office  hours — news  that  I  thought  he  should  know  without  delay, 
to  come  with  it  to  his  home,  and  if  he  had  retired  to  route  him  out; 
if  he  was  out  his  people  would  know  where  he  could  be  found  and 
would  tell  me,  and  I  must  find  him.  Once  I  found  him  at  the  White 
House,  and  sent  in  my  card ;  he  came  to  a  small  room  in  the  north 
front  of  the  building  to  meet  me ;  twice  I  found  him  in  bed.  Once, 
on  a  Sunday  morning,  when  I  was  supplied  with  newsy  telegrams,  I 
called  and  was  conducted  to  his  bed  chamber  by  his  orders,  and  found 
him  in  bed,  wide  awake,  ready  for  business  and  kindly  as  usual ;  after 
a  few  preliminary  remarks  I  showed  the  telegrams  and  he  said:  "Stand 
up  and  read  them,  Captain."  So  I  stood  at  the  foot  of  his  bed  and 
read. 

When  he  became  Postmaster  General,  the  "Civil  Service  Regula- 
tions Governing  Promotions  in  the  Railway  Mail  Service"  had  not 
been  introduced,  and  transfer  clerks,  where  not  more  than  two  were 
assigned  to  the  same  station,  were  outside  the  classified  civil  service 
breastworks.  The  former  was  introduced  during  his  term  of  office, 
and  the  latter  also ;  the  last  gave  him  more  trouble  than  the  first,  be- 
cause in  these  smaller  places  an  inexperienced  man  could,  in  a  very 
brief  time,  perform  the  duties  very  well.  One  day  he  said :  "Captain, 
the  demand  for  these  small  excepted  places  is  something  awful.  You 
know  there  are  very  few  places  that  can  be  given  to  those  who  think 
they  deserve  recognition,  and  I  am  afraid  that  I  will  have  to  make 
changes  in  those  places,  but  I  don't  like  to.  I  am  a  civil  service  man ; 
am  the  head  of  the  Civil  Service  Club  in  Bufifalo,  and  believe  in  it  fully; 
but  what  am  I  to  do  in  these  excepted  places,  that  evidently  were  ex- 
cepted because  they  were  not  important  enough  to  require  protection?" 
I  replied,  in  substance,  that  the  changes  could  be  effected  by  assigning 
the  clerks  then  occupying  the  excepted  places  to  road  duty  as  fast  as 
vacancies  occurred  on  lines  not  too  large  for  them,  and  filling  the  va- 
cated positions  with  those  demanding  recognition,  if  they  were  of  good 
character;  this  would  satisfy  his  people  undoubtedly,  because  the  aspir- 
ants could  not  be  appointed  to  railway  post  offices,  except  as  provided  in 
the  civil  service  laws,  regulations  and  rules ;  whereas  those  holding 
the  excepted  places  were  eligible  for  assignment  to  them.  He  said, 
"That  is  the  solution ;  we  will  do  it  that  way." 

Speaking  for  the  railway  mail  service,  I  am  glad  to  say  that  we 
never  were  blessed  with  more  consideration  and  just  treatment  than 


211 

we  received  from  Mr.  Bissell  and  Mr.  Wilson;  the  former  was  very 
much  pleased  with  the  record  made  by  it  during  his  administration. 

But  to  return  to  the  subject,  obstruction  of  trains  carrying  the 
mails.  The  opinion  rendered  by  the  Acting  Attorney  General  provided 
a  substantial  foundation  for  the  position  that  the  Government  took 
respecting  interference  with  its  business,  and  on  which  it  fought  a 
splendid  fight  and  won,  I  believe,  for  all  time.  Sixteen  years  have 
passed  since  that  victory.  If  a  strike  has  occurred  anywhere  in  this 
country  in  the  interim,  involving  interference  with  mails  in  transit  on 
railroads,  I  do  not  know  of  it;  I  know  none  occurred  before  I  retired 
from  the  service.  The  honor  is  due  two  men,  who  were  fearless  in  the 
discharge  of  duty ;  President  Cleveland  and  Postmaster  General  Bissell. 

I  remember  one  demand  that  nearly  resulted  in  a  strike  of  a  dif- 
ferent character,  a  strike  on  the  part  of  the  highest  officer  of  a  short 
line  of  road,  now  part  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  system. 
It  connected  with  the  Illinois  Central  main  line  at  Warren,  111.,  and 
extended  north  to  Mineral  Point,  Wis.,  supplying  several  fair  sized 
offices.  The  accommodations  furnished  for  the  mail  service  were 
good,  larger,  in  fact,  than  the  service  required,  but  I  do  not  remember 
that  any  one  in  our  service,  or  connected  with  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment, ever  complained  of  too  much  space  so  long  as  it  was  furnished 
without  charge.  In  this  case  the  officer  had  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  his  company  was  not  being  paid  sufficiently  for  the  service  it  per- 
formed, and  so  stated  in  a  letter  to  my  office.  I  replied  to  the  effect 
that  he  was  receiving  the  maximum  pay  of  his  line ;  that  it  was  not 
possible  to  pay  him  more  until  he  carried  a  greater  weight  of  mail, 
etc. ;  but  my  friend,  who  was  a  very  agreeable  gentleman,  frank  and 
fair  as  a  rule,  was  not  convinced  and  came  back  two  or  three  times 
insisting  on  an  increase  of  compensation,  saying  at  last  that  if  his  con- 
tention was  not  allowed  by  a  certain  date  named  he  would  cease  carry- 
ing our  agent.  During  this  correspondence  I  had  made  a  full  statement 
of  the  case  to  the  General  Superintendent,  and  suggested  a  way  to 
overcome  the  trouble.  He  agreed,  and  telegraphed  me  to  handle  it  as 
I  thought  best.  So  I  visited  the  general  office  of  the  Illinois  Central  in 
Chicago,  and  requested  that  I  be  given  a  half  dozen  trip  passes,  in  an 
assumed  name,  good  between  Freeport,  111.,  and  Dubuque,  Iowa.  This 
was  done,  and  I  took  the  first  train  destined  for  Dubuque,  passed 
Warren,  and  got  off  at  Scales  Mound,  111.,  went  to  the  hotel,  engaged 
a  room  and  had  a  talk  with  the  landlord ;  found  him  a  very  modest 
and  pleasant  gentleman  in  middle  life;  took  him  into  my  confidence; 
told  him  of  the  difficulty  with  the  Mineral  Point  and  Warren  Railroad, 


212 

and  requested  him  to  send  some  reliable  person  to  me  who  was 
familiar  with  the  country  between  Scales  Mound  and  Mineral  Point 
and  who  was  able  to  carry  the  mails  between  those  points  once  daily, 
except  Sundays,  in  both  directions.  He  sent  the  man.  I  told  him  my 
plan,  which  was  to  start  a  wagon  from  Scales  Mound  and  one 
from  Mineral  Point  at  the  same  hour  each  morning,  providing  sufficient 
relays,  paralleling  the  railroad  between  Mineral  Point  and  Darlington, 
Wis.,  and  running  from  Darlington  via  ShuUsburg  to  Scales  Mound; 
arriving  there  as  early  in  the  afternoon  as  possible,  and  taking  away 
from  the  railroad  all  the  passenger  business  we  could.  This  was  all 
arranged  to  take  effect,  if  need  be,  on  a  certain  date  named.  The 
gentleman  who  was  to  furnish  the  service  was  to  start  from  Scales 
Mound  with  the  first  train  and  go  through  to  Mineral  Point.  I  was 
to  start  from  Mineral  Point  at  the  same  hour  of  the  same  morning 
with  a  team  and  driver,  and  go  through  to  Scales  Mound.  After  the 
arrangements  were  all  perfected  I  said  to  the  gentleman  who  was  to 
equip  and  handle  the  route,  "I  do  not  believe  that  it  will  be  necessary 
to  put  it  in  operation,  but  be  ready.  I  will  go  down  to  Warren  on  the 
next  train,  and  give  away  our  plans,  and  what  has  been  done,  in  the 
station  house,  where  the  agent  will  hear  it,  and  know  who  I  am ;  and 
then  I  will  go  to  Mineral  Point,  the  headquarters  of  the  company,  and 
see  what  will  develop.  You  can  talk  all  you  want  to  now,  the  more 
the  better."  This  program  was  adhered  to.  I  arrived  in  Mineral  Point 
that  evening  and  went  to  the  hotel  immediately,  where  I  found  the 
officer  on  the  lookout  for  me ;  an  interview  was  requested,  which  I 
granted,  and  in  a  half  hour  I  telegraphed  to  the  mail  contractor  in 
embryo,  at  Scales  Mound,  "The  stage  route  will  not  be  needed,"  and 
he,  good  man,  understood. 

RECORD  OF  MAIL  IN  TRANSIT. 

For  many  years  after  the  railway  post  office  was  instituted  no 
record  was  made  of  pouch  mail  in  transit  from  offices  of  origin  to 
offices  addressed.  Looking  back  to  those  days  now,  it  does  not  seem 
strange  that  mails  were  lost  frequently  then  without  any  one  seeming 
to  know  or  care.  Was  this  not  due  in  a  large  measure  to  postal  officials 
who  derived  but  little  of  their  earnings  from  the  offices  they  occupied; 
who  enjoyed  hunting  and  fishing  more  than  office  work;  made  the  con- 
duct of  the  post  offices  intrusted  to  them  secondary  to  the  private 
business  that  they  were  engaged  in ;  used  it  to  draw  custom  to  the 
latter,  and  failed  to  realize  the  responsibility  that  the  offices  placed 
them  under  to  the  Government  and  its  patrons?  What  of  the  people? 
Were  they  not  too  much  attached  to  the  quiet,  uneventful  life  of  the 


213 

town  and  country?  Did  not  that  life  tend  to  dwarf  the  development 
of  alertness,  energy,  drive  and  push,  that  rouses  the  mind  to  observe 
inaction,  sluggishness,  lack  of  system,  and  irregularities ;  to  make  in- 
quiry, investigation  and  urge  reforms? 

Supposing  the  people  and  postmasters  had  been  wide-awake  to 
their  privileges,  trusts,  obligations  and  interests,  could  such  an  occur- 
rence have  happened  as  I  am  about  to  relate? 

I  had  been  in  my  assignment  as  Chief  Clerk  at  Omaha  about  six 
months  when  one  day  the  clerk  in  charge  of  the  railway  post  office  that 
was  to  depart  for  Ogden  that  day  made  a  requisition  for  a  suj^ply 
of  pouches  and  locks,  his  car  being  short  of  the  number  recjuired  to 
maintain  its  exchange  with  offices  in  Colorado,  Wyoming,  Utah,  Idaho, 
Montana,  Washington  and  Oregon,  and  the  Ogden  &  San  Francisco 
railway  post  office,  which  was  the  base  for  Nevada,  Arizona  and 
California. 

On  a  route  1,033  miles  long,  constituting  the  base  of  supply  for 
the  post  office  in  such  an  empire  of  rugged  mountains,  low-lying  val- 
leys, deep  gorges,  and  torrential  streams ;  dependent  upon  star  routes 
after  the  mails  were  dispatched  from  the  railroad,  it  was  inevitable 
that  shortages  and  excesses  of  equipment  should  occur  occasionally ; 
that  these  might  be  equalized  quickly,  Omaha  had  been  constituted  a 
pouch  and  lock  depository,  and  into  this  the  clerks  in  charge  of  the 
Omaha  and  Ogden  railway  post  office  had  been  instructed  to  turn  the 
excess  at  the  end  of  each  run,  and  if  a  shortage  instead  of  an  excess 
existed,  to  ask  for  what  they  needed.  The  Omaha  office  was  to  check 
in  and  out  of  the  depository. 

In  filling  the  requisition  for  pouches  and  locks  spoken  of,  it  de- 
veloped that  one  year,  to  a  day,  previously,  excess  pouches  and  locks 
had  been  brought  in  from  the  west  by  this  railway  post  office,  and 
taken  with  Omaha  mail  to  the  post  office ;  there  was  some  excess  mail 
also,  part  of  which  was  enclosed  in  a  large  leather  pouch,  known  in  the 
inner  circles  of  the  postal  service  in  the  "wild  and  wooly  west"  as 
"bull  hides;"  its  capacity  was  about  10,000  letters.  This  pouch  was 
mixed  with  the  excess  empties,  was  thrown  with  them  into  the  cellar, 
and  notwithstanding  its  great  weight  and  frequent  handling  was  piled 
away  with  them.  When  it  was  brought  up  as  a  pouch  of  pouches,  a 
glance  satisfied  me  that  it  was  full  of  mail.  I  felt  of  it  and  knew  that 
I  was  correct,  opened  it  with  my  key,  and  found  it  full  of  letters  ad- 
dressed to  Omaha,  Neb.  I  turned  it  over  to  the  postmaster,  who  caused 
it  to  be  distributed  into  private  boxes,  the  general  delivery,  some  to 
banks,  railway  offices,  and  other  important  business  concerns ;  a  printed 
slip  of  explanation  accompanied  each  delivery.     The  most  remarkable 


214 

feature  of  this  most  remarkable  blunder  was  that  I  found  on  making 
inquiry  that  no  one  remembered  that  more  than  the  usual  number  of 
complaints  of  losses  and  delays  had  been  received  during  the  year. 

Another  case  I  remember  was  small  in  the  value  of  the  mail 
matter  involved,  but  otherwise  the  blunder,  the  lack  of  system,  the 
sacrifice  of  official  business  in  behalf  of  personal,  was,  at  least,  as 
great.  This,  too,  occurred  in  my  early  days  as  chief  head  clerk  at  Omaha, 
Neb.  Colonel  Armstrong  was  General  Superintendent  at  Washington, 
D.  C.  Special  agents  were  about  as  scarce  in  the  west  as  "hen's  teeth," 
which  will  account  for  the  Colonel  sending  me  a  complaint  received  at 
the  Department  from  a  gentleman  living  in  a  small  town  supplied  with 
mail  by  a  star  route  heading  from  Fort  Kearney,  which  was  a  military 
post  in  Kearney  County,  Nebraska,  south  of  the  Platte  River,  a  stream 
with  a  very  treacherous  bed  in  those  days.  I  have  not  heard  of  its 
being  macadamized  or  covered  with  asphaltum  since,  but  many  bridges 
have  been  thrown  across  it.  He  requested  me  to  investigate  the  non- 
receipt  of  a  registered  package  at  the  office  to  which  it  was  addressed 
in  Nebraska ;  this  was  equivalent  to  a  command,  and  I  started  on  the 
investigation  at  once,  taking  a  Union  Pacific  train  at  Omaha  and 
alighting  at  Kearney  Station,  which  is  in  Buft'alo  County,  north  of  the 
Platte  River.  There  I  hired  a  man  with  an  ox  team  to  take  me  across 
the  river  to  the  fort,  where  I  arrived  somewhat  in  adavance  of  the  fly 
season,  and  called  on  the  postmaster,  whom  I  found  in  the  midst  of  a 
most  wonderful  medley  of  discordant  elements.  In  addition  to  being 
postmaster  he  was  the  sutler  of  the  post,  and  editor  and  publisher  of 
a  newspaper  called  "The  Centoria,"  I  believe ;  its  mission  being  to  con- 
vince the  natives  and  denizens  of  this  great  and  growing  country  that 
our  beautiful  capital  city  on  the  Potomac,  where  it  was  located  by  the 
Father  of  his  country,  and  where  the  nation's  most  magnificent  public 
buildings  have  been  erected  with  the  people's  money,  should  be  given 
up  to  the  owls  and  bats  and  the  tramps  and  wanderers  because  it  was 
not  in  the  exact  geographical  center  of  the  Republic,  and  a  new  one 
built  on  the  spot  where  Fort  Kearney  stood.  Fort  Kearney  has  dis- 
appeared ;  it  has  no  place  on  the  map  of  the  United  States,  or  in  the 
Postal  Guide,  although  it  has  in  history,  but  Washington,  D.  C,  has 
grown  more  grand  and  beautiful  each  year. 

I  am  sure  that  the  postmaster  had  other  engagements,  but  only 
He  that  knoweth  all  things  could  reveal  what  they  were ;  but  they  were 
enough  to  cause  me  to  approach  him  with  the  business  of  my  journey 
into  that  strange  land  as  gently  as  I  could.  I  did  not  wish  to  add  a 
feather's  weight  to  the  mighty  burden  he  was  staggering  under  and 
which  made  the   surrounding  universe  tremble  as   it  had,   not  many 


215 

years  before,  under  the  ponderous  tread,  the  mighty  weight,  and  rush 
of  vast  herds  of  buffaloes,  that  roamed  the  alkah  plains,  fed  upon  the 
short  succulent  grass,  and  furnished  sport  and  food  for  the  Indian. 
I  showed  the  letter  that  I  had  received  to  the  postmaster ;  he  examined 
his  records  of  registered  matter  in  transit,  searched  his  books  in  which 
he  entered  those  received  and  dispatched,  and  finally  said  that  the 
package  had  not  been  in  his  office,  otherwise  he  would  have  a  record 
of  it.  While  he  was  searching  his  records,  I  kept  running  my  hand 
through  the  mass  of  newspaper  exchanges,  second-class  matter,  mer- 
chandise, letters,  etc.,  piled  upon  a  table  back  of  his  press  and  type; 
shortly,  to  our  mutual  astonishment,  the  package  appeared  on  the 
summit  of  the  pile.  The  crimson  tide  that  swept  over  his  face  and 
neck  told  of  his  humiliation  and  confusion. 

The  postmaster's  name  was  Sydenham ;  he  was  a  Christian  gentle- 
man, and  for  many  years  after  he  retired  from  official  and  business 
pursuits  at  Fort  Kearney  he  was  a  faithful  clerk  in  the  Omaha  and 
Ogden  railway  post  office. 

The  losses  and  delays  that  occurred  to  closed  pouch  mail  became 
a  source  of  anxiety,  annoyance  and  embarrassment  to  the  limited 
number  of  field  officers  in  the  service,  especially  to  those  in  charge  of 
divisions,  with  lines  stretching  out  for  hundreds  of  miles  through 
sparsely  settled  sections  and  supplying  carelessly-managed  offices,  that 
sometimes  failed  to  receive  their  mails  and  made  no  effort  to  discover 
whether  they  had  been  delivered  when  the  train  passed,  and  were 
afterwards  found  by  chance  under  station  platforms,  in  the  grass  and 
weeds  by  the  roadside,  and  sometimes  in  out-of-the-way  places,  such 
as  vaults,  piles  of  rotting  lumber,  fence  posts  and  all  sorts  of  out  build- 
ings, abandoned  wells,  etc. 

LIST  OF  EXCHANGE  POUCHES  AND  SHORTAGE  SLIPS. 

After  I  had  been  located  in  Chicago  some  time  the  clerks  were 
required  to  provide  themselves  with  lists  of  exchange  pouches  due  to 
and  from  them  at  terminals,  and  to  check  them  in  and  out  of  their 
railway  post  offices  on  these  lists.  This  uncovered  the  irregularities 
of  handling,  and  insured  immediate  report  to  their  superintendent, 
either  direct,  or  through  the  chief  clerk,  if  one  intervened.  This 
started  an  inquiry  immediately,  and  was  a  move  in  the  right  direction, 
but  later  it  was  found  to  be  insufficient  to  meet  all  phases  of  the 
trouble ;  it  did  not  provide  for  the  discovery  of  the  same  class  of 
irregularities  at  way  stations  and  junctions,  or  of  pouches  made  up  in 
one  large  post  office  for  another  and  not  intended  to  be  opened  in  tran- 
sit, but  which  were,  inadvertently,  in  an  intervening  railway  post  office, 


216 

the  contents  distributed  with  other  mail  and  the  pouch  thrown  on  the 
pile  of  empties,  thus  losing  its  individuality,  and  the  mail  enclosed  in  it 
its  distinctiveness.  In  such  cases  the  pouch  would  not  be  missed  until 
the  day  it  was  due  at  the  office  of  destination ;  then  its  failure  to  arrive 
would  be  reported. 

This  was  further  improved,  in  truth,  it  may  be  said,  perfected, 
between  1894  and  1900.  Up  to  1894  the  pouch  list  and  checking  off 
system  applied  to  terminals  only ;  then  it  was  extended  to  way  offices 
and  junctions,  and  later  the  "shortage  slip,"  originated  by  Supt.  Troy, 
was  introduced. 

With  the  pouch  list,  which  gives  an  excellent  record  of  the  ex- 
changes and  the  "shortage  slip,"  which  is  dispatched  in  lieu  of  every 
missing  exchange,  and  the  instructions  governing  the  use  of  them  by 
railway  post  offices,  post  offices,  transfer  clerks,  mail  messengers,  train 
and  station  baggagemen  and  others  who  handle  pouch  mail,  losses  and 
delays  are  located  promptly.  Ultimate  and  absolute  loss  is  often  pre- 
vented by  locating  the  place  of  disappearance,  and  the  news  of  the 
delay  is  carried  to  the  post  office  to  which  the  pouch  is  addressed,  at 
the  exact  hour  it  was  due,  if  the  train  by  which  it  should  have  been 
delivered,  arrives  on  time.  In  all  cases  a  record  can  be  made  of  a 
pouch  from  the  time  it  is  dispatched  to  a  train  by  the  initial  post  office 
until  it  arrives  at  the  office  addressed ;  if  lost,  missent  or  delayed  in 
any  way  the  explanation  of  when  and  how  will  arrive  at  that  office  by 
first  train  and  will  be  referred  to  the  superintendent  of  the  division  at 
once.  If  it  is  due  to  be  dispatched  over  any  part  of  the  route  it  travels 
in  charge  of  a  train  baggageman,  and  if  he  does  not  receive  it,  but 
does  receive  a  "shortage  slip,"  he  must  send  that  to  his  superintendent, 
who  will  send  it  to  the  Superintendent  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service 
for  that  division.     This  will  insure  prompt  action.. 

To  throw  additional  light  on  the  subject  and  system,  a  quotation 
from  my  annual  report  for  1900  is  here  given. 

"Every  railway  postal  clerk  in  charge,  transfer  clerk,  mail  messen- 
ger, train  or  station  baggageman,  or  other  person  handling  pouch  mail, 
is  furnished  with  a  list  of  the  pouches  he  should  receive  and  dispatch, 
arranged  under  the  following  headings : 


How  label  of  pouch  reads. 


"Where  received. 


Train  No. 


Day  dispatched.         No.  of  pouches, 


"The  headings  are  self  explanatory. 

"When  a  pouch  is  received  or  dispatched  by  any  of  the  employees 
mentioned  above  it  is  checked  off  on  the  pouch  list.     Whenever  it  is 


817 

tiecessary  for  a  railway  post  office  or  a  post  office  to  make  two  or  more 
pouches  for  the  same  address  the  clerk  making  them  is  required  to 
prepare  the  pouch  slide  label  as  follows :  Mark  with  pen  or  pencil  upon 
the  pouch  slide  label  the  figures  of  the  number  of  pouches  made  up 
to  one  address,  marking  the  first  pouch  '1,'  the  second  pouch  '3/ 
and  so  on,  until  the  final  or  last  pouch  is  made  up,  the  latter  to  be 
marked  with  its  proper  number  in  regular  order,  and,  in  addition,  with 
a  cross,  thus  (X),  which  cross  will  indicate  the  last  of  the  series  of 
pouches  made  up  and  labeled  to  same  address.  Thus  a  permanent 
record  of  all  first-class  mail  in  transit  is  made.  But  this  record  was 
defective  in  that  it  did  not  give  the  cause  of  the  failure  to  receive,  or 
locate  the  place  where  or  route  upon  which  the  pouch  disappeared,  or 
was  turned  from  its  regular  course,  and  therefore  did  not  afford  as 
much  information  to  the  officers  tracing  the  pouch  as  was  desirable  or 
possible. 

"This  defect  has  been  overcome  by  the  introduction  of  the  'short- 
age slip,'  which  the  late  Supt.  Troy  originated  and  tested  successfully. 
This  slip  is  filled  out  and  forwarded  by  the  first  person  who  should 
have  but  did  not  receive  a  pouch  due  him,  and  describes  the  same, 
giving  the  address  on  the  pouch  slide  label,  cause  of  failure,  etc.,  which 
he  hands  to  the  next  to  whom  the  pouch  is  due,  and  in  this  way  it  passes 
from  hand  to  hand,  just  as  the  pouch  would  have  done  had  it  not  been 
lost  or  missent.  The  fact  that  a  'shortage  slip'  is  received  in  lieu  of  the 
pouch  should  be  shown  on  the  pouch  list  by  the  letters  'S.  S.'  ('shortage 
slip.') 

"To  illustrate  the  matter  a  sample  'shortage  slip'  is  given  below : 


Date 

Sir  :     I  am  short  pouch  due  by  this  train  as  per  address  on 

the  other  side  of  this  slip,  at 

from Train  No 

Cause         Train  late  and  failed  to  connect, 
of  Pouch  not  brought  from  post  office. 

Shortage       Messenger  failed  to  make  train. 

Unknown ;    proper  official  notified  by  wire. 
(Erase  all  but  one  line  above.) 

(Signature) 

(Title)      

To 


218 

(The  other  side.) 


Mail  Shortage  Notice. 

This  notice  must  be  addressed  exactly  as  the  pouch  it  repre- 
sents, and  is  to  be  forwarded  to  destination  in  Heu  of  every 
pouch  of  mail  short. 

Insert  here     1 

address  of      \  Via    

pouch  short.  \  -^ 

;  r  rom    


"The  'shortage  sHp'  contemplates  that  when  any  one  whose  duty 
it  is  to  receive  a  pouch  fails  to  receive  it,  he  shall  score  out  all  of  the 
causes  on  the  'shortage  slip,'  except  the  real  cause;  if  the  cause  is  not 
printed  on  the  'shortage  slip'  they  should  all  be  crossed  out  and  the 
real  reason  given,  if  known,  and  it  should  then  be  forwarded  in  regu- 
lar order  to  the  destination  of  the  pouch  which  it  represents,  proper 
record  being  made  by  each  clerk  or  other  employee  on  the  pouch  list 
to  show  that  it  was  a  'shortage  slip'  and  not  the  pouch  itself.  The 
person  in  charge  of  the  delayed  pouch  will  handle  the  same  as  if  it 
were  a  regular  pouch  and  on  time,  except  that  each  one  handling  it  will 
note  upon  his  pouch  list  and  also  upon  his  trip  report  the  fact  that  he 
has  received  a  delayed  pouch.  The  railway  post  office  or  post  office 
to  whom  the  delayed  pouch  is  addressed  will,  on  receiving  a  'shortage 
slip'  in  lieu  of  it,  forward  the  slip  to  the  Division  Superintendent  who 
has  jurisdiction  in  the  premises  (the  postal  clerk  with  his  daily  trip  re- 
port; the  postmaster  in  a  penalty  envelope)  with  a  statement  as  to 
when  and  from  what  source  the  missing  pouch  was  afterwards  re- 
ceived. If  not  received,  that  fact  is  reported,  and  proper  steps  taken 
in  the  case." 

This  valuable  innovation  was  tested  very  thoroughly  during  the 
two  subsequent  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  our  opinion  of  it  was 
expressed  in  the  annual  report  for  the  fiscal  year  1902  as  follows : 

"The  'shortage  slip'  has  now  become  one  of  the  essential  features 
of  the  service,  and  its  advantages  are  becoming  more  and  more  appar- 
ent, now  that  its  introduction  has  become  general  throughout  the 
entire  service.  If  a  pouch  fails  to  make  its  regular  connection  a  'short- 
age slip'  is  made  out,  and  dispatched  in  lieu  of  it.  The  cause  of  the 
failure  of  the  pouch  to  connect  is  thus  disclosed  and  reported  at  once 


219 

to  the  proper  officer  of  the  service  by  the  railway  postal  clerk,  or  to 
the  proper  official  of  the  railroad  by  the  employee  of  that  railroad,  and 
long  and  vexatious  investigations  thereby  avoided.  Taken  in  connec- 
tion with  the  requirement  to  check  all  pouches  in  and  out  of  mail  cars 
and  mail  wagons,  it  furnishes  a  complete  trace  from  office  of  dispatch 
to  office  of  destination." 

RESIDENCE. 

The  employees  of  the  railway  mail  service  were  not  restricted  in 
the  selection  of  their  place  of  residence  until  1894.  Previous  to  that 
year  many  lived  miles  from  the  route  to  which  assigned  and  when 
trains  were  "snowed  in,"  or  the  track  over  which  they  passed  to  reach 
their  own  route  was  blocked  with  wrecks,  washed  out  bridges,  or 
floods,  they  were  unable  to  report  at  the  head  of  their  route  in  time  to 
take  out  the  first  run  of  their  regular  tour  of  duty ;  the  result  was 
that  the  clerks  who  were  on  duty  were  compelled  to  continue  on  the 
run  until  the  delayed  clerk  reported,  or  a  qualified  substitute  could 
be  obtained,  otherwise  the  run  went  out  alone  and  continued  down 
the  line  until  a  regular  clerk  or  substitute,  who  had  been  notified  to 
do  so,  reported  at  the  train  and  took  charge  of  the  mail.  This  was 
detrimental  to  public  interests  and  imposed  hardships  on  the  clerks. 

In  1894  a  committee  of  superintendents  was  appointed  to  pass 
upon  the  blanks  then  on  our  list,  and  to  recommend  the  discontinuance 
of  such  as  had  become,  in  its  opinion,  obsolete  or  unsatisfactory,  and 
to  submit  to  the  General  Superintendent  such  additional  blanks  as  in 
its  judgment  had  become  necessary.  Other  matters  pertaining  to 
improved  and  uniform  methods  of  handling  the  service  were  con- 
sidered and  recommended  by  the  committee.  After  it  had  completed 
this  work  it  discussed  the  importance  and  advisability  of  recom- 
mending that  an  order  be  issued  requiring  "the  clerks  in  the  rail- 
way mail  service  to  take  up  their  residence  at  some  point  on  the 
route  to  which  they  are  assigned,  satisfactory  to  their  division  superin- 
tendent," and  recommended  it. 

When  the  work  of  the  committee  was  received  it  was  examined 
carefully,  and  most  of  it  approved  and  made  effective.  The  recom- 
mendation respecting  the  residence  of  clerks  I  approved,  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  Postmaster  General  through  the  Second  Assistant  Post- 
master General,  Hon.  J.  Lowrie  Bell,  who  approved  it  and  directed 
me  to  issue  the  necessary  order  to  carry  it  into  effect.  This  I  did  June 
3,  1894,  in  the  following  language : 


220 

Washington,  D.  C,  June  2,  1894. 
General  Order  No.  378. 

Residence,  Place  of. — Ordered :  That  all  clerks  in  the  railway 
mail  service  performing  duty  in  railway  post  offices  take  up  their  resi- 
dence at  some  point  on  the  route  to  which  they  are  assigned  satisfac- 
tory to  their  division  superintendent  on  or  before  May  1,  1895. 

Those  who  can  do  so,  without  considerable  pecuniary  loss  or 
sacrifice  of  home  property,  will  be  expected  to  comply  with  this  order 
at  once ;  the  others  at  the  earliest  moment  possible ;  none  later  than 
the  date  named. 

By  order  of  the  Postmaster  General. 

James  E.  White,  Gen'l  Supt. 

The  order  aroused  some  indignation  and  was  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  by  Senator  Hoar  of 
Massachusetts,  and  in  February,  1895,  Congress  passed  an  amendment 
to  H.  R.  Bill  8,272,  providing  "that  all  clerks  hereafter  appointed  to 
the  railway  mail  service  and  to  perform  duty  in  railway  post  offices 
shall  reside  at  some  point  on  the  route  to  which  they  are  assigned,  but 
clerks  heretofore  appointed  and  now  performing  such  duty  shall  not 
be  required  to  change  their  residence." 

This  bill  having  become  a  law  by  direction  of  the  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral I  issued  General  Order  No.  383,  which  after  reciting  the  above 
amendment,  stated,  that  it  "having  become  a  law.  General  Order  378 
is  hereby  revoked.  Clerks  now  living  upon  the  lines  to  which  assigned 
will  retain  their  present  residences." 

This  action  had  become  necessary  by  the  growth  of  the  service, 
the  importance  of  the  mail  to  the  business  public,  and  the  absolute 
necessity  for  a  thoroughly  regular  and  reliable  mail  service,  and  it 
has  helped  to  bring  this  condition  about. 

PROTECTION   OF   CLERKS   WHILE   IN   THE   DISCHARGE 
OF  THEIR  DUTIES. 

In  1894  several  railway  postal  clerks  were  assaulted  and  injured  by 
vicious  and  drunken  men  while  discharging  their  duties  in  their  cars. 
The  assailants  belonged  to  that  class  in  whom  brutal  instincts  predom- 
inate, but  which  they  mistake  for  a  superior  creation  absolving  them 
from  the  restraints  and  obligations  imposed  upon  the  "common  herd" 
of  mankind.  Being  no  respecters  of  laws  and  regulations,  they  cannot 
comprehend  how  the  free-born  American  citizen,  realizing  the  distinc- 
tion and  liberty  thus  acquired,  can  hold  sacred  those  things  that  they 
despise,  and  if  need  be  will  voluntarily  place  his  life  in  jeopardy  to 


221 

enforce  and  defend  them.  The  assaults  usually  resulted  from  efforts 
made  by  conscientious  clerks  to  enforce  the  laws  and  regulations  re- 
lating to  entry  into  railway  post  offices  by  unauthorized  persons.  The 
trouble  continuing,  notice  was  taken  of  it  in  my  annual  report  for  1896, 
as  follows : 

"During  the  past  two  years  several  railway  postal  clerks,  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duty,  have  been  assaulted  by  persons  not  connected 
with  the  Post  Office  Department,  and  in  two  instances  at  least  were  so 
badly  hurt  that  they  could  not  finish  their  runs,  and  consequently  the 
mails  were  thereby  delayed  in  reaching  the  addressees. 

"These  two  clerks  were,  in  fact,  so  seriously  injured  that  they 
were  obliged  to  go  to  the  hospital  for  treatment.  These  assaults 
generally  grow  out  of  the  fact  that  the  clerk  is  instructed  to  allow  no 
unauthorized  person  to  enter  his  car  or  apartment,  and  in  attempting 
to  enforce  the  regulation  is  maliciously  and  unwarrantably  assaulted. 

"Unfortunately,  it  has  been  found  that  there  is  no  warrant  of  law 
to  enable  the  legal  representatives  of  the  Government  to  prosecute 
the  guilty  parties,  and  it  is  with  the  view  of  correcting  this  that  I 
earnestly  urge  the  passage  of  a  measure  by  Congress  whereby  such 
assaults  will  be  classed  as  offenses  against  the  United  States. 

"There  is  on  page  755,  section  3869,  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of 
the  United  States,  a  law  making  it  a  felony  to  assault  a  letter  carrier 
while  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty,  and  it  is  no  more  than  just  and 
proper  to  protect  our  clerks  in  the  same  manner.  A  statute  reading 
as  follows  would  meet  the  case : 

"Every  person  who,  by  violence,  enters  a  railway  post  office  car 
or  apartment  assigned  to  the  use  of  the  railway  mail  service,  or  who 
willfully  and  maliciously  assaults  a  railway  postal  clerk  while  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duties  as  such ;  and  every  person  who  willfully  aids 
or  assists  therein,  shall  for  every  such  offense,  be  punishable  by  a  fine 
of  not  less  than  $100,  and  not  more  than  $1,000,  or  imprisonment  for 
not  less  than  one  year  and  not  more  than  three  years. 

"Such  a  measure  is  of  especial  importance  to  the  patrons  of  the 
Department  and  likewise  to  the  Department,  for  when  a  clerk  is  so 
badly  injured  as  to  be  unable  to  distribute  and  deliver  the  mails  re- 
ceived by  him,  both  private  and  public  interests  are  more  or  less  em- 
barrassed, and  in  many  instances  those  who  transact  their  business 
almost  exclusively  by  mail  suffer  serious  losses.  *  *  *  * 
Where  the  clerk  is  seriously  injured  the  mail  in  his  custody  cannot  be 
guarded  properly  and  consequently  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  assaulting 
party  or  parties.  Besides  this  the  Department  rightfully  allows  the 
salary  of  the  clerk  injured  to  run  during  the  time  he  is  unable  to  per- 


223 

form  his  duties,  and  consequently  it  is  put  to  the  additional  expense 
of  employing  an  acting  clerk  to  keep  up  the  run  of  the  injured  clerk 
until  he  returns  to  duty." 

Shortly  after  the  Department's  recommendations  were  received 
by  Congress — the  54th,  I  think — a  bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Livings- 
ton of  Georgia,  reading  exactly  like  the  draft  we  suggested.  He  ven- 
tured the  opinion  that  it  would  meet  the  case.  It  did  not  become  a 
law  then,  however.  In  the  next  annual  report  and  in  each  that  followed 
it  until  1903,  it  appeared  in  connection  with  an  earnest  recommendation 
that  Congress  legislate  for  the  protection  of  the  clerks.  It  seems  very 
strange  that  in  a  matter  so  simple  of  understanding,  so  manifestly  in 
the  interest  of  the  Government  and  its  people,  so  humane  in  its  object, 
so  thoroughly  in  the  line  of  self-preservation,  for  it  was  to  protect  the 
representatives  of  the  Government  employed  in  a  business  of  which  it 
has  a  monoply,  that  it  should  have  been  permitted  to  linger  before 
Congress  seven  years  without  action,  when  it  is  not  unreasonable  to 
assume  that  if  its  importance  had  been  realized  fully,  it  would  have 
become  a  law  in  less  than  a  month  after  the  date  of  its  introduction ; 
nevertheless  I  am  thankful  that  it  passed  finally. 

RAILWAY  POST  OFFICES  ON  ELECTRIC  AND  CABLE  CAR 

LINES. 

In  my  annual  reports  for  1895  and  1896  glowing  comments  were 
made  on  this  service  and  a  splendid  future  predicted  for  it,  all  of 
which  has  been  justified  since.  It  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  General 
Superintendent  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service  during  the  last  half  of  the 
calendar  year,  1895 ;  before  June  30th  of  that  year  it  had  been  intro- 
duced in  Boston,  Brooklyn,  Philadelphia,  New  York  and  St.  Louis. 

During  the  fiscal  years  1896  and  1897  my  office  and  those  of  the 
division  superintendents  worked  heroically  to  develop  and  extend  it, 
and  we  were  successful.  It  was  inaugurated  in  Chicago,  Cincinnati, 
San  Francisco,  Rochester,  N.  Y. ;  Northampton,  Mass.,  during  the 
fiscal  year  1896. 

Statement. 

On  October  26,  1895,  the  annual  miles  of  service  was  73,356. 
The  number  of  separate  lines  in  the  four  cities,  Boston,  Mass. ;  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y. ;  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  and  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  was  10 ;  the  number 
of  clerks  employed  on  such  lines  was  17;  the  number  of  cars  was  12; 
the  number  of  pieces  of  mail  handled  daily  was  78,932 ;  average  num- 
ber of  crews  19;  miles  of  routes,  112.71. 

On  June  30,  1896,  the  annual  miles  of  service  was  907,863.  The 
number  of  separate  lines  was  21 ;  the  number  of  clerks  employed,  75 ; 


Hon.  Stilt..  P.  T.\ft 

Superintendent  Seventh  Division   K.   M. 
(See  Appendix) 


223 

the  number  of  cars  and  apartments  was  45;  the  number  of  pieces  of 
mail  handled  daily  was  505,481 ;  the  average  number  of  closed  pouches 
handled  daily  was  398;  number  of  round  trips  with  clerks  per  day, 
196 ;  number  of  crews,  60 ;  average  number  of  miles  run  daily  by 
crews,  279.45 ;  miles  of  routes,  198.58. 

Whenever  it  was  possible  to  do  so,  special  letter  boxes,  painted 
white,  the  color  adopted  for  these  cars,  were  located  at  important 
street  intersections,  several  squares  apart,  from  which  collections  were 
made  by  the  clerks  on  each  trip ;  collectors  in  districts  outside,  or  be- 
yond the  postal  car  routes,  were  instructed  to  deposit  their  mail  in  these 
boxes  wherever  their  routes  touched  them ;  this  provided  additional 
facilities  to  many  districts  not  traversed  by  street  railway  post  offices. 

Arrangements  were  perfected,  whereby  twelve  of  the  principal 
branch  offices  and  all  the  railroad  stations  in  Boston  were  brought  in 
touch  with  the  General  Post  Office  through  the  postal  cars  in  operation 
on  the  "West  End  Street  Railway;"  45^,000  letters  were  made  up  to 
carrier  routes  daily  in  the  cars  on  this  one  route,  and  a  saving  in  the 
handling  of  328  pouches  daily  was  efifected.  A  cross-town  service  be- 
tween Dorchester  and  Back  Bay  was  established,  which  made  a  gain  of 
two  hours  in  the  transit  of  the  mail  passing  over  that  route  from  one 
section  to  the  other.  These  cars  also  ran  to  the  railroad  stations  and 
exchanged  mails  with  the  steam  railway  post  offices,  making  an  earlier 
delivery  by  two  hours  of  mail  arriving  at  the  dififerent  stations  for 
many  of  the  branch  offices,  and  in  some  instances  effecting  a  delivery 
the  day  of  its  arrival,  of  mail  that  previously  remained  undelivered 
until  the  following  day. 

Very  great  improvements  were  made  in  New  York,  Brooklyn, 
Philadelphia,  Washington,  Cincinnati,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  and  North- 
ampton, Mass. 

In  Chicago  eight  cars,  equipped  with  crews  of  two  clerks  each, 
running  on  four  lines  reached  direct  eleven  of  the  largest  branch  offices, 
and,  by  connecting  lines,  four  others.  A  good  feature  of  the  service 
in  this  city  was  the  arrangement  whereby  each  car  as  it  passed  around 
the  "loop"  in  the  downtown  district — the  great  wholesale  and  retail 
center — exchanged  mails  with  the  cars  on  the  other  lines,  keeping 
much  of  it  in  motion  from  the  time  it  was  mailed  until  it  was  delivered. 
Twelve  round  trips  were  made  daily,  except  Sundays ;  on  that  day  but 
three  were  made. 

Excellent  arrangements  prevailed  in  St.  Louis.  Two  lines 
equipped  with  three  cars  were  in  operation,  one  line  made  twelve 
round  trips  daily,  the  other  five ;  the  aggregate  daily  mileage  was 
254.73 ;  these  cars  exchanged  mails  with  four  branch  offices,  eleven 


234 


sub-stations  and  four  fourth-class  post  offices.  One  feature  of 
the  St.  Louis  service,  which  was  an  improvement  upon  that 
of  any  other  city,  and  that  reaHzed  my  dream,  was  the  deHvery  from 
the  cars  to  G3  carriers  of  mails  for  their  routes  where  they  intersected, 
thus  giving  an  additional  delivery  practically  to  these  routes.  At  that 
time  about  1,000  pounds  of  mail  was  collected  daily  from  the  288  letter 
boxes  visited  by  the  clerks  on  these  cars.  The  interior  of  the  cars  were 
so  fitted  up  that  the  carriers  could  arrange  their  mail,  in  regular  order, 
for  early  delivery  while  riding  from  the  main  office  to  the  point  nearest 
their  routes. 

The  growth  of  the  service  during  the  fiscal  year  1897  was  healthy. 
At  its  close  this  showing  was  presented : 

No.  of  separate  lines    33  Increase  12 

"        clerks  employed  102  Increase  27 

"        crews   87  Increase  27 

"        cars    65  Increase  20 

"        round  trips  per  day   343  Increase  147 

miles  of  routes    303.68  Increase  105.10 

Annual  miles  of  service  with  clerks 1,619,829  Increase  711,966 

Pieces  of  mail  handled  daily  593,860  Increase  88,379 

Average  No.  of  closed  pouches  handled  daily       568  Increase  170 

The  annual  report  for  1898  showed : 

No.  of  separate  lines 40  Increase  7 

"       clerks  employed  112  Increase  10 

"       crews   98  Increase  11 

"       cars    71  Increase  6 

"       round  trips  per  day   388  Increase  45 

miles  of  routes    379.47  Increase  75.79 

Annual  miles  of  service  with  clerks.  ..  .1,744,694  Increase  124,865 

Pieces  of  mail  handled  daily 1,889,092  Increase  1,295,232 

Avg.  No.  of  closed  pouches  handled  daily           971  Increase  403 

Those  who  read  this  and  compare  the  statements  for  the  four 
years,  1895,  1896,  1897^  and  1898,  will  understand  that  the  service  was 
managed  by  officers  who  believed  in  it ;  believed  that  when  developed 
and  extended  every  section  of  all  our  greatest  business  centers,  and  all 
the  states  in  the  Union,  would  share  alike  in  the  benefits  of  the 
increased  expedition  afforded  the  mails  by  this  service.  But 
while  success  was  crowning  our  efforts  the  unwelcome  truth 
was  forcing  its  way  into  my  mind  that  the  full  possibilities 
of  the  railway  mail  service  could  not  be  wrought  out  econ- 
omically   unless    it    could    control    the    boundaries    of     the    collec- 


225 

tors'  routes  penetrated  by  the  railway  post  offices,  their  schedules  and 
those  adjoining,  and  have  at  its  command  a  sufficient  number  of  clerks 
to  overcome  the  shortness  of  the  routes.  This  I  found  was  too  much 
to  hope  for,  and  being  desirous  that  it  be  utilized  to  its  full  capacity 
I  made  the  following  statement  in  the  report  for  the  fiscal  year  1897: 

"The  distribution  of  mails  on  electric  and  cable  lines  in  cities  has 
been  continued  and  extended  during  the  past  year  with  considerable 
success.  It  is  a  question  in  my  mind,  however,  whether  this  class  of 
service  ever  can  be  made  to  accomplish  what  was  hoped  when  the  sys- 
tem was  inaugurated.  The  runs  are  too  short  as  a  rule  to  admit  of 
the  distribution  of  any  great  quantity  of  mail  either  way.  It  was 
hoped  that  on  outward  trips  from  the  main  office  or  depots  we  would 
be  able  to  distribute  the  mail  for  carriers  so  that  upon  arrival  at  the 
several  branch  offices  the  mail  would  be  arranged  in  such  shape  that 
the  carriers  might  start  immediately  on  their  routes,  and  that  on  inward 
trips  the  mail  taken  from  the  branch  offices  or  collectors  might  be  dis- 
tributed and  pouched  to  outgoing  trains,  and  thus  avoid  delay  in  the 
main  office.  We  do  indeed  accomplish  a  great  deal  in  that  direction, 
but  lack  of  time  as  already  mentioned  and  lack  of  facilities  on  account 
of  the  limited  space  obtainable  has  prevented  us  from  accomplishing 
all  that  we  hoped  to.  I  am  still  of  the  opinion,  however,  that  the  ser- 
vice is  worth  all  it  costs,  and  that  it  would  be  a  step  backward  to 
abandon  it. 

"By  arranging  matters  so  that  collectors  can  connect  with  the 
postal  cars  on  street  car  lines,  considerable  time  can  be  saved  by  having 
the  mail  properly  sorted,  canceled  and  distributed  in  part  before  arri- 
val at  the  main  office  or  railroad  station.  More  to  this  end  could  be 
accomplished  probably  if  what  might  be  strictly  called  the  city  service 
were  placed  in  charge  of  the  postmaster  or  superintendent  of  mails 
than  if  retained,  as  at  present,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  railway 
mail  service.  It  is  all  performed  within  the  territory  covered  by  the 
delivery  of  the  post  office,  and  does  a  class  of  work  for  the  proper 
performance  of  which  the  people  have  always  been  accustomed  to  look 
to  the  postmaster.  It  is  so  closely  in  touch  with  the  collection  and 
carrier  service,  and  its  successful  operation  depends  so  much  upon  its 
relations  with  these  branches,  that  in  my  judgment  it  could  accomplish 
the  greatest  good  if  placed  under  the  same  control. 

"There  are  a  number  of  electric  lines  throughout  the  country 
which  perform  the  same  service  practically  as  a  regular  railroad  line, 
running,  as  they  do,  beyond  the  limits  of  any  one  city,  and  supplying  a 
number  of  independent  offices.  Such  service  should  be  controlled  by 
the  railway  mail  service,  but  the  lines  running  entirely  within  the  limits 


226 

of  a  city  can  be  handled  more  harmoniously  and  more  satisfactorily, 
I  think,  through  the  local  ofifice. 

"If  this  change  is  made,  these  cars  should  be  manned  by  clerks 
from  the  post  office  and  not  by  railway  postal  clerks,  as  is  the  case  to 
a  great  extent  at  present;  and  such  clerks  should  be  taken  upon  the 
post  office  rolls,  as  an  offset  for  the  post  office  clerks  on  railroad  lines 
working  city  mails,  who  can  be  taken  up  on  the  railway  mail  service 
rolls,  as  suggested  in  a  preceding  section  of  this  report. 

"I  merely  suggest  these  changes  for  your  consideration.  If  in 
your  judgment  this  service  should  be  controlled  from  this  office  I 
assure  you  that  it  will  be  my  constant  effort  to  promote  its  efficiency 
and  to  extend  its  usefulness." 

The  proposition  was  approved  by  the  First  and  Second  Assistant 
Postmasters  General  and  in  December  of  the  fiscal  year  1898  we  com- 
menced carrying  the  suggestions  into  effect.  It  was  understood  that 
the  railway  mail  service  would  carry  on  its  roster  the  clerks  employed 
in  the  street  railway  post  offices  until  the  year  ended.  We  did  this  and 
in  addition  took  upon  our  rolls  many  of  the  clerks  who  were  assigned 
from  some  of  the  principal  post  offices  to  city  distribution  in  our  cars ; 
it  being  our  policy  to  assume  such  distribution  as  rapidly  as  we  could 
secure  sufficient  additional  force  to  do  so.  Our  observations  had  con- 
vinced us  that  it  could  be  done  more  generally  and  more  economically 
in  this  way  than  in  any  other  way,  and  time  has  shown  that  we  were 
correct. 

CITY  DISTRIBUTION  IN  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICES. 

The  late  Supt.  R.  C.  Jackson,  of  the  Second  division,  placed  on 
record  the  fact  that  about  the  first  work  done  in  the  New  York  & 
Washington  railway  post  office  "was  the  distribution  of  the  letters  for 
delivery  in  New  York  City ;  separations  being  made  for  the  delivery 
boxes,  for  the  several  stations,  etc.,  so  that  a  gain  of  four  hours  was 
claimed  in  the  receipt  by  the  public  of  the  great  south  mail  arriving  in 
the  morning." 

This  railway  post  office  was  introduced  in  October,  1864,  I  think. 
It  was  the  second  inaugurated,  and,  as  is  indicated  in  the  statement 
just  quoted,  the  Civil  War  was  being  waged  with  unparalleled  energy, 
drawing  thousands  of  men  into  the  field  almost  daily  from  the  north; 
but  for  these  armies  the  mail  from  the  south  at  that  time  would  not 
have  been  large.  Mr.  Jackson  said  in  his  "Sketch  of  the  Railway  Mail 
Service,"  published  in  1884,  in  writing  of  this  line,  that  "At  the  termi- 
nation of  the  war,  in  consequence  of  the  return  of  soldiers  to  their 
homes,  the  work  fell  off  to  almost  nothing  for  a  few  months.     It  was 


227 

gradually  built  up  again  by  the  reopening  of  mail  communication 
throughout  the  south." 

After  this,  and  until  1899,  the  principal  part  of  this  distribution 
was  performed  by  city  distributers  sent  out  each  evening  from  such  im- 
portant post  offices  as  Boston,  Mass. ;  Chicago,  111. ;  New  York,  N.  Y. ; 
Philadelphia,  Pa. ;  Portland,  Oregon ;  St.  Louis,  Mo. ;  St.  Paul,  Minn., 
and  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  on  outward-bound  trains  to  the  meeting 
point  of  a  railway  post  office — usually  a  fast  mail — to  which  they 
transferred  and  commenced  distributing  the  mail  to  carrier  routes,  the 
same  as  if  they  had  remained  in  their  home  office,  but  the  result  was 
radically  dififerent,  the  mail  was  delivered  to  the  persons  addressed 
from  two  to  four  hours  earlier,  and  more  than  that  in  some  cases. 

In  1883  the  New  York  and  Chicago  fast  mail,  which  required  a 
stronger  force  of  clerks  on  west  than  east-bound  trips,  to  distribute 
the  general  mail,  began  to  utilize-  the  surplus  strength  east-bound  in 
making  up  the  New  York  City  mail  for  branch  offices,  stations,  and 
large  business  concerns ;  the  following  year  it  handled  14,000,000  pieces 
in  this  way.  The  growth  of  this  class  of  work  was  slow  for  reasons 
given  in  the  following  extract  from  my  annual  report  of  1894  : 

"There  were  prepared  for  immediate  delivery  to  stations  and 
carriers,  by  railway  postal  clerks  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  1894,  483,667,275  letters.  This  work  was  in  addition  to  the  regular 
distribution  to  offices  and  routes,  of  which  10,339,973,790  pieces  were 
handled  by  them.  The  number  of  letters  treated  for  immediate  de- 
livery to  stations  and  carriers  as  above  was  but  a  small  part  of  the 
aggregate  number  prepared  for  immediate  delivery  during  that  period, 
and  the  aggregate  was  but  an  infinitesimal  portion  of  the  number  ad- 
dressed to  offices  of  the  first  importance.  Those  prepared  in  excess 
of  the  number  handled  by  railway  postal  clerks  were  separated  by  city 
distributers,  sent  out  from  certain  post  offices  to  meet  incoming  trains, 
and  no  record  of  the  number  distributed  by  them  appears  in  this  re- 
port, because  the  work  was  not  done  by  the  railway  mail  service.  That 
which  was  handled  by  postal  clerks  represents  the  time  that  they  would 
otherwise  have  been  unemployed  while  on  duty ;  in  some  instances, 
such  as  the  lines  operating  between  Boston,  Mass.,  and  New  York 
City,  New  York,  the  force  used  would  not  have  been  employed 
but  for  this  class  of  distribution.  The  paramount  duty  of  a  rail- 
way postal  clerk  is  to  complete  the  distribution  of  the  regular  mail 
received  by  him ;  whatever  time  may  remain  to  him  after  this  has  been 
accomplished  can  be  employed  upon  the  separation  of  city  mail ;  con- 
sequently the  extent  of  this  class  of  work  possible  to  railway  postal 
clerks,  under  existing  conditions,  depends  upon  the  quantity  of  ordi- 


228 

nary  mail  they  receive.  The  east-bound  mails  are  always  lighter  than 
the  west-bound,  and  as  the  lines  must  be  provided  with  sufficient  force 
to  distribute  the  largest  mail  received,  there  is  usually  a  reserve  force 
on  east-bound  trips  that  can  be  utilized  to  separate  the  mails  for 
stations  or  carrier  routes,  thus  avoiding  the  delay  in  delivery  involved 
in  dispatching  it  to  the  main  offices  for  the  same  treatment;  but  the 
east-bound  mails  fluctuate  in  quantity,  and  no  one  knows  at  the  com- 
mencement of  a  trip  whether  it  will  be  above  or  below  the  usual 
amount  received  on  that  day  of  the  week.  Sometimes  some  of  the 
regular  connections  are  lost,  then  more  time  can  be  given  to  city  dis- 
tribution ;  sometimes  double  connections  are  received ;  a  publishing 
house  sends  out  an  unusual  quantity  of  matter,  or  a  business  concern 
floods  the  mails  with  circulars  or  letters  soliciting  trade,  then  little  or 
no  time  can  be  given  to  the  preparation  of  city  mails,  for  it  would  not 
be  satisfactory  to  the  Department  or  the  public  to  delay  the  mails  for 
one  or  more  states  a  day  in  order  to  expedite  the  delivery  of  those  ad- 
dressed to  a  single  great  city. 

"There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  desirability  of  disposing  of  the 
mails  for  commercial  cities  in  the  manner  outlined,  because  such 
treatment  would  be  of  great  advantage  to  the  public,  in  that 
it  would  advance  business  transactions  of  all  kinds  materially 
— some  of  them  a  day  at  least  and  almost  all,  several 
hours.  It  is  not  necessary  that  all  the  mails  addressed  to 
these  large  cities  and  dispatched  by  railway  post  offices 
should  be  separated  in  transit ;  those  brought  in  after  the  carriers 
have  departed  on  their  last  tour  for  the  day  and  a  reasonable  time 
before  they  start  on  their  first  tour  of  the  following  day  should  be 
thrown  into  the  main  office  for  separation,  but  those  received  at  other 
hours  would  be  greatly  expedited  in  delivery  if  so  separated.  Con- 
sidering the  fact  that  our  clerks  can  devote  some  portion  of  their  time 
to  this  work  on  east-bound  trips  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  office  that  the 
work  can  be  performed  more  economically  by  the  railway  mail  service 
than  by  post  offices,  after  it  is  systematized  and  the  clerks  become 
familiar  with  it.  I  would  suggest  as  a  beginning  that  a  list  of  the 
offices  that  would  receive  the  greatest  benefits  from  such  advanced 
separation  be  prepared,  that  there  be  transferred  from  these  post  offices 
to  the  railway  mail  service  a  sufficient  number  of  city  distributers  to 
insure  the  proper  preparation  of  the  mails  for  immediate  delivery  and 
that  there  be  added  to  the  appropriation  for  clerk  hire  whatever  sum 
may  be  necessary  to  cover  the  salaries  of  those  so  transferred.  This 
arrangement  ought  not  to  increase  the  expense  of  city  distribution  at 
any  time,  and  after  the  railway  postal  clerks  have  acquired  the  knowl- 


229 

edge  necessary  to  work  the  mails  the  cost  would  not  be  as  great  as  if 
the  whole  separation  fell  upon  the  post  offices,  for  it  is  assumed  that 
the  decrease  in  the  number  of  city  distributers  employed  in  the  offices 
affected  would  correspond  to  the  increase  of  this  class  of  work  per- 
formed in  railway  post  offices." 

The  following  year  this  separation  passed  more  largely  to  the 
railway  mail  service.  Some  of  the  city  distributers  of  the  offices 
named,  who  dead-headed  on  outward-bound  trains  to  the  point  of 
meeting  inward-bound  railway  post  offices,  and  while  returning  to  the 
starting  point,  separated  the  mail  to  carrier  routes,  stations,  etc.,  were 
returned  to  their  respective  offices ;  others  were  transferred  to  the 
railway  mail  service  and  were  utilized  with  the  crews  upon  the  distri- 
bution of  the  city  and  general  mail  in  both  directions,  unless  the  lines 
to  which  such  clerks  were  transferred  ran  between  two  large  cities, 
and  the  trains  to  which  their  cars  were  assigned,  arrived  at  both  in  the 
morning;  in  that  event  it  was  the  ultimate  intention  to  make  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  mail  for  these  terminal  cities  their  paramount  duty ; 
their  studies  and  examinations  were  to  be  upon  the  schemes  of  those 
cities,  and  they  were  to  have  understudies  who  could  in  a  little  while 
assist  by  making  up  direct  for  large  concerns,  banks,  hotels,  manu- 
factories, general  offices  of  railway  lines,  mailing  houses,  etc.,  leaving 
the  finer  work  for  the  more  expert  distributer,  and  later  be  able  to 
assume  the  duties  wholly  in  emergencies,  and  to  perform  the  special 
work  in  the  event  of  the  promotion,  death  or  removal  of  the  clerks  so 
assigned. 

Improvement  was  very  noticeable  at  the  close  of  1895  ;  more  so 
at  the  end  of  the  fiscal  years  1896,  1897,  and  1898,  due  largely  to  the 
methods  employed  by  the  late  Supt.  Lewis  L.  Troy  to  secure  the  co- 
operation of  postmasters,  business  concerns,  and  the  public  after  he 
was  instructed  to  take  up  the  city  distribution  for  Chicago  in  railway 
post  offices.  These  methods  were  emphatically  approved  by  the  Gen- 
eral Superintendent,  who  instructed  other  superintendents  to  put  them 
in  force  in  their  divisions  as  far  as  possible,  and  urged  the  Department 
to  send  copies  of  the  circulars  issued  by  Supt.  Troy  and  the  postmaster 
at  Chicago,  111.,  to  the  postmaster  at  each  of  the  principal  cities  through- 
out the  country,  with  instructions  to  have  a  supply  of  them  printed 
and  distributed  by  carriers  of  their  respective  offices. 

The  circulars  read  as  follows : 
''To  the  Public: 

"The  distribution  of  letter  mail  to  stations  and  carriers  of  the 
Chicago  post  office  will  hereafter  be  performed,  as  far  as  possible,  in 
the  railway  post  office  cars. 


230 

"To  enable  i)ostal  clerks  to  do  this  work  it  is  imperatively  neces- 
sary that  all  letters  for  persons  residing  within  the  district  tributary 
to  the  Chicago  post  office  should  be  addressed  not  only  to  street  and 
number,  but  also  to  the  carrier  route,  if  within  the  limit  of  the  main 
office,  and  to  the  station  where  the  party  addressed  is  served  by  carrier 
from  a  station  of  the  Chicago  post  office.    For  example: 

"Rowell,  Hitt  &  Co., 
"141  Clark  St., 
"Carrier  65.  "Chicago,  111. 

"Mrs.  J.  Russell  Brown, 

"151  W.  Sixty-third  street, 
"Station  O.  "Chicago,  111. 

"Loomis  Bread  Co., 

"151  W.  Madison  street, 
"Station  D.  "Chicago,  111. 

"Wood,  Coal  &  Co., 

"1402  Wabash  avenue, 
"Carrier  230.  "Chicago,  111. 

"The  public  is  earnestly  requested  to  co-operate  with  the  railway 
mail  service  in  securing  the  prompt  delivery  of  matter  on  arrival  at 
Chicago  by  making  the  address  of  letters  full  and  complete,  as  above 
indicated. 

"Letters  should  not  be  addressed  to  street  corners,  as  the  four 
corners  may  be  served  by  four  different  carriers,  and  postal  clerks  can 
not  determine  which  of  the  four  would  be  the  proper  one  to  make  the 
delivery. 

"Carrier  numbers  and  letters  of  stations  can  readily  be  obtained 
from  your  correspondents  in  the  city. 

"All  letters  not  addressed  to  street  and  number  are  sent  to  the 
main  office  at  Chicago  for  distribution,  and  this  necessarily  results  in 
delay  in  delivery. 

"(Signed)     Lewis  L.  Troy, 

"Supt.  R.  M.  S." 

This  circular  was  issued  on  the  1st  of  July,  1895,  and  on  the  15th 
of  the  same  month  the  postmaster  at  Chicago  issued  a  notice  to  the 
business  public  which  read  as  follows : 

"To  expedite  the  business  of  the  post  office  all  incoming  mail,  with 
unimportant  exceptions,  will  hereafter  be  distributed  on  the  railway 
post  offices  by  clerks  of  the  railway  mail  service.    Distribution  of  mail 


Hon.  Lewis  L.  Troy 

I, ate  SuperitUeiideut  .Sixth  Division  K.  M.  S. 


231 

on  the  railway  post  offices  directly  to  carriers  enables  this  office  to 
promptly  deliver  all  incoming  mail.  This  end,  however,  can  be  attained 
only  by  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  business  public.  If  mail  is  not 
addressed  to  street  and  number  it  cannot  be  distributed  to  carriers  by 
the  railway  postal  clerks.  Hence^  as  a  natural  consequence,  distribu- 
tion to  carriers  is  delayed,  and  the  work  left  undone  until  the  mail 
reaches  the  Chicago  post  office.  Loss  of  time  occasioned  by  neglect 
to  use  street  and  number  usually  makes  a  difference  of  one  delivery 
at  least  in  placing  the  mail  in  the  hands  of  the  letter  carriers.  Busi- 
ness men  are  interested  in  securing  the  immediate  delivery  of  mail 
on  its  arrival  in  the  city,  and  their  interests  suffer  materially  by  the 
nonobservance  of  the  rule  which  enjoins  the  addition  of  street  and 
number  to  an  address.  Merchants  distribute  thousands  of  addressed 
envelopes  yearly  for  the  use  of  out-of-town  customers.  Very  often 
such  envelopes  contain  stamps,  so  desirous  are  the  senders  to  promote 
business.  Such  expense  is  incurred  because  it  is  thought  to  be  a 
good  investment.  Many  of  these  envelopes  bear  addresses  like  the 
following:     'Chas.  Smith  &  Co.,  Chicago,  111.' 

"As  a  means  of  expediting  the  distribution  of  mails  in  the  rail- 
way post  offices  such  an  address  is  of  comparatively  little  value.  The 
postal  clerk  at  Minneapolis,  Indianapolis,  or  Omaha  handling  such  a 
letter  probably  never  heard  of  Smith  &  Co.  Even  if  its  reputation  as 
a  leading  house  had  reached  the  postal  clerks  they  would  have  no  idea 
what  part  of  Chicago  its  business  was  located  in.  Postal  clerks  do  not 
learn  distribution  to  firms  by  name.  They  learn  it  by  street  and  num- 
ber only.  It  is  impossible  for  a  clerk  to  memorize  the  street  and  num- 
ber address  of  every  business  house  and  building  in  Chicago.  Neither 
can  he  carry  in  his  head  the  names  of  the  large  buildings  in  Chicago. 
He  must  have  street  and  number  on  each  envelope  if  his  work  is  to 
have  any  good  results  and  a  saving  of  time  is  to  be  effected.  There- 
fore, when  a  letter  addressed  to  'Chas.  Smith  &  Co.,  Chicago,  111.,'  is 
picked  up  by  a  postal  clerk  it  is  thrown  to  the  pouch  labeled  'Chicago' 
to  await  local  distribution  in  this  office.  On  the  other  hand,  take  the 
letter  properly  addressed,  thus,  'Chas.  Smith  &  Co.,  101  Dearborn 
street,  Chicago,  111.'  The  postal  clerk  probably  does  not  know  where 
Dearborn  street  is,  and  may  never  have  been  in  Chicago  in  his  life, 
but  he  knows  his  'scheme,'  and  throws  the  letter  thus  addressed  to 
carrier's  district  No.  36,  section  1,  post  office.  The  letter  goes  at  once 
to  carrier  36  when  it  arrives  in  Chicago,  and  is  delivered  without  delay. 
The  other  letter  addressed  merely  'Chicago'  comes  in  the  general  mail 
and  takes  its  turn  for  distribution,  remaining  in  the  office  an  hour  or 


232 

more  after  the  properly  addressed  letter  has  been  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  person  for  whom  it  was  intended. 

"The  delivery  of  mail  fits  into  the  arrival  of  incoming  mail.  The 
mail  distributed  on  the  road  goes  out  at  once  by  carrier.  The  mail 
merely  separated  on  the  road  is  held  for  distribution,  and  has  to  await 
the  next  trip  of  the  carrier  before  it  can  be  delivered. 

"These  facts  ought  to  convince  business  men  of  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  insisting  upon  the  use  of  street  and  number  as  part  of  the  ad- 
dress on  mail  of  every  sort  and  character.  Envelopes  printed  in  any 
other  way  are  practically  of  no  value,  and  do  not  expedite  the  delivery 
of  mail  in  the  least.  It  results,  too,  in  giving  the  outside  public  the 
impression  that  the  mere  use  of  the  word  'Chicago'  is  sufficient,  an 
error  responsible  for  most  of  the  confusion  and  delay  in  the  delivery 
of  mail. 

"It  is  estimated  that  more  than  50  per  cent,  of  the  business  mail 
for  Chicago  is  addressed  without  street  and  number.  Under  the  old 
system,  by  the  employment  of  special  clerks  who  were  compelled  to 
memorize  thousands  of  addresses  a  great  deal  of  the  unaddressed  mail 
was  given  partial  train  distribution.  The  volume  of  business,  together 
with  the  change  in  the  service;,  render  the  continuance  of  this  practice 
impossible.  The  new  service,  by  reason  of  its  wider  ramifications,  will 
give  the  business  world  greatly  increased  facilities  in  the  delivery  of 
mail  from  out-of-town  points  if  the  business  world  will  only  co-operate 
to  the  extent  of  addressing  its  mail  properly.  Where  mail  is  not  ad- 
dressed by  street  and  number,  this  office  will  not  undertake  to  deliver 
it  as  promptly  as  that  which  is  properly  addressed." 

The  circular  letter  of  the  postmaster  of  Chicago  was  delivered  at 
the  business  places  and  homes  of  all  the  residents  of  that  city  by  the 
carriers,  and  the  one  issued  by  Supt.  Troy  was  sent  to  all  the  post- 
masters in  the  Sixth  division.  The  results  of  the  two  were  remarkable. 
In  a  brief  space  of  time  thousands  of  letters  were  received  by  the 
addressees  from  business  and  social  correspondents  several  hours 
earlier  than  usual,  because  they  had  added  to  the  address  that  they 
had  previously  placed  upon  the  envelopes,  the  street  and  number,  and, 
if  within  the  limit  of  the  general  post  ofifice,  the  carrier  route  also ;  or 
if  supplied  by  carrier  from  a  station,  the  designation  of  the  station,  as 
shown  in  Mr.  Troy's  circular.  The  harmony  of  action  that  character- 
ized the  postal  authorities  in  Chicago ;  in  fact,  throughout  the  whole 
section  within  the  influence  of  that  city,  soon  worked  a  revolution  in 
the  comprehensibility  of  addresses,  which  is  responsible  for  the  won- 
derful decrease  in  the  number  of  letters  sent  into  the  Chicago  post 
ofifice  for  separation  to  station  and  carrier  routes  because  the  addresses 


233 

were  not  full  enough  to  enable  the  city  distributers  in  railway  post 
offices  to  dispose  of  them  in  that  way. 

It  will  be  remembered  by  the  reader,  that  in  the  suggestions  made 
to  the  Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General  in  my  annual  rei)ort  for 
the  fiscal  year  1897,  respecting  the  transfer  of  the  street  railway  post 
office  service  to  the  supervision  of  the  postmasters,  I  said,  if  this  is 
done  the  clerks  employed  in  them,  who  are  charged  to  the  railway 
mail  service,  should  be  withdrawn  therefrom,  and  be  assigned  to  the 
regular  railway  post  offices,  and  that  the  post  office  clerks,  performing 
city  distribution  in  the  regular  railway  post  offices,  should  be  returned 
to  their  respective  offices,  or  be  transferred  to  the  railway  mail  service. 

After  the  suggestions  were  approved,  the  transfers  to  the  rail- 
way mail  service  were  made  gradually,  but  were  not  completed  until 
the  fiscal  year  1899.  But  during  the  intervening  years,  1890  to  1899, 
the  number  of  pieces  of  mail  distributed  for  city  delivery  by  railway 
postal  clerks  in  railway  post  offices  had  increased  from  226,429,575  to 
519,870,465. 

From  that  time  on,  every  effort  possible  has  been  made  to  sys- 
tematize that  feature  of  the  service  and  in  doing  it  many  unsatisfactory 
conditions  and  unreasonable  demands  had  to  be  met  and  adjusted.  It 
always  had  been  the  practice  to  confine  this  class  of  distribution  to 
those  trains  arriving  at  these  great  cities  too  late  to  permit  of  the  work 
being  done  in  the  offices  in  time  for  the  first  carrier  delivery  in  the 
morning;  as  time  wore  on  and  important  railway  post  offices  arrived 
later  in  the  day  in  some  of  these  centers,  but  early  enough  to  insure  a 
substantial  gain  in  the  delivery  of  the  mail,  if  made  up  to  a  limited 
number  of  carrier  routes,  to  the  branch  offices,  stations,  banks,  com- 
mercial houses,  hotels,  etc.,  it  was  extended  to  cover  them,  because  it 
enabled  those  who  desired  to  gain  one  day  on  their  business  corres- 
pondence to  do  so,  thus,  for  all  practical  purposes,  bringing  the  pro- 
ducer and  consumer,  the  buyer  and  seller,  one  day  nearer  each  other,  a 
consideration  too  important  financially  to  be  overlooked  by  the  dealer, 
or  to  be  ignored  by  a  Government  interested  in  the  welfare  of  its 
citizens. 

A  few  postmasters  made  themselves  very  disagreeable  by  insist- 
ing upon  a  wide  distribution  at  unseasonable  and  unprofitable  hours, 
apparently  to  give  their  own  men  more  leisure  for  athletic  exercises, 
etc.,  and  demanded  that  intricate  and  impractical  separations  be  made 
regardless  of  whether  there  were  compensating  benefits ;  changed  the 
boundaries  and  mixed  the  territory  of  carrier  routes  without  sub- 
stantial reason  in  some  cases,  thus  forcing  a  new  scheme,  the  re- 
memorizing  of  the  distribution ;  destroying  the  stability  of  knowledge 


234 

once  acquired  ;  imposing  absolutely  unnecessary  hardships  upon  men 
already  burdened,  and  in  this  way  retarding  the  development  planned, 
until  the  ofificers  of  the  service  were  compelled  to  take  the  stand  that 
before  the  railway  mail  service  accepted  a  scheme  from  an  office  inquiry 
would  be  made  to  determine  whether  all  the  routes  provided  for  were 
of  such  importance  as  to  justify  their  being  made  up  in  the  railway 
post  office.  In  other  words,  if  there  were  reasons  to  believe  that  un- 
necessary work  and  study  were  demanded  we  would  participate  in 
providing  the  specifications  for  the  scheme  sufficiently  to  act  as  a  check 
upon  the  scope  of  its  construction,  and,  if  this  failed  to  keep  it  within 
justifiable  limits,  we  would  make  the  schemes  used  in  this  distribution 
in  railway  post  offices  the  same  as  we  made  those  governing  all  other 
distribution  made  therein,  or,  if  we  used  those  made  in  post  offices, 
we  would  mass  on  the  main  office  the  mail  supplied  by  carrier  routes, 
which  would  not  be  advanced  in  delivery  because  of  being  so  made  up, 
and  also  whatever  was  supplied  by  routes  not  of  sufficient  importance 
to  justify  the  increase  of  labor  and  money  that  it  might  involve.  This 
question  was  finally  set  at  rest,  but  that  we  might  continue  to  "hang 
on  the  jagged  edge"  there  arose  another  live  question^  but  the  dispute 
preceding  its  settlement  was  a  family  one,  and  a  harmonious  one  at 
that,  and  was,  Should  this  work  be  assigned  to  clerks  of  the  same 
class  in  all  crews?  If  so,  what  class?  And  should  they  be  eligible  like 
all  other  clerks  of  that  class  on  their  respective  lines  for  promotion  to 
the  next  higher  class,  subject  to  the  civil  service  promotion  regulations, 
and  if  promoted  carry  the  assignment  to  city  distribution  with  them? 
Or  should  a  special  corps  be  created  from  class  3  clerks  to  perform 
this  special  distribution,  and  if  they  had  leisure  afterwards,  do  what- 
ever the  clerk  in  charge  directed,  and  not  be  eligible  to  promotion,  on 
the  ground  that  stability  of  employment  on  the  special  work  was  essen- 
tial to  efficiency,  and  this  could  not  be  secured  if  the  assignment 
changed  every  time  one  of  these  class  3  men  was  promoted? 

My  office  held  that  these  clerks  would  be  entitled  to  promotion  if, 
in  addition  to  keeping  up  their  studies,  work  and  examinations  on  city 
distribution,  they  passed  the  examinations  required  of  clerks  of  the 
same  class  assigned  to  general  distribution,  and  made  such  records  as 
would  entitle  them  to  advancement  under  the  civil  service  promotion 
regulations.  In  my  judgment  any  other  course  would  be  pre-eminently 
unjust ;  to  illustrate :  Three  men  were  appointed  to  the  service  as 
probationers  on  the  same  line  the  same  day ;  one  of  them  had  more 
days  to  his  credit  as  a  substitute,  and  in  consequence  received  a  per- 
manent appointment  first;  three  months  later  a  vacancy  occurred  in 
the  special  corps  and  this  clerk  was  promoted  to  it ;  this  ended  his  eli- 


235 

gibility  for  further  promotion.  A  month  later  both  the  others  entered 
class  3,  but  as  no  vacancy  existed  in  the  special  corps,  neither  was  as- 
signed to  it,  both  continued  on  the  general  distribution ;  a  month  later 
one  vacancy  occurred  in  class  4,  and  two  months  later  another ;  as  both 
these  clerks  had  the  best  records  in  their  class  they  received  these 
promotions ;  passed  the  danger  point  of  life  assignment  to  class  3.  Be- 
ing clerks  of  fine  capacity  they  were  advanced  on  merit  alone  from  one 
class  to  another,  and  in  a  series  of  years  became  chief  clerks,  assistant 
superintendents,  division  superintendents,  and  general  superintendent ; 
Why  not?  Five  of  those  who  have  been  General  Superintendent;  all 
of  those  who  are  Division  Superintendents,  Assistant  Superintendents 
and  Chief  Clerks  moved  up  in  that  way.  The  facts  are  that  a  corps  so 
constituted,  so  far  as  advancement  of  individual  members  of  it  is  con- 
cerned, would  be  isolated  from  a  progressive  future,  as  much  so  as  a 
leper  is  from  mankind.  That  is  why  the  above  decision  was  made. 
The  Superintendent  of  one  division  assigned  the  city  distribution  to 
his  clerks  in  charge  and  thus  overcame  the  question  of  isolation  from 
promotion ;  but  there  were  resulting  disadvantages  to  such  an  assign- 
ment, the  principal  one  being  that  it  would  in  time  unfit  the  school- 
master of  the  crew  for  that  position ;  from  being  an  encyclopedia  of 
general  information  respecting  distribution  he  would  become  a  special- 
ist, and  that  would  be  very  undesirable.  During  all  this  time  improve- 
ment— extension  and  system — was  advancing  and  in  1904  the  number 
of  pieces  distributed  was  673,918,710  and  in  1906  it  had  increased  to 
828,446,795;  in  1907  to  944,449,105,  and  in  1909  to  1,132,338,710, 
which  shows  that  the  clerks  were  mastering  this  distribution  as  they 
had  that  undertaken  for  the  first  time  in  1864. 

Thus  far  city  distribution  has  not  been  confined  to  any  special  class 
uniformly;  more  clerks  of  class  3  and  under  are  engaged  in  it  than  of 
other  classes,  but  whoever  is  so  assigned  performs  other  distribution 
also,  and  studies  and  passes  examinations  upon  it.  The  question  of 
promotion  is  not  an  open  one  longer ;  it  is  assured  to  those  best  quali- 
fied for  it.  As  the  service  grows  modifications  in  assignments,  in 
methods  of  handling  it,  will  become  necessary,  and  those  in  the  saddle 
now,  as  well  as  those  who  will  follow,  will  know  by  experience  what 
to  do. 

PRIMARY    SEPARATION     OF     SECOND-CLASS    MATTER. 

Away  back  in  1872  the  New  York  City  post  office  occupied 
cramped  quarters,  even  for  those  days.  I  do  not  know  whether  that 
was  their  first  experience  in  that  line,  but  I  do  know  it  was  not  the 
last ;  for  I  have  observed  that  each  time  they  have  vacated  a  building 


236 

they  have  moved  into  one  large  enough  to  accommodate  all  the  federal 
offices  located  in  the  city.  But  ages  before  the  building  began  to  show 
signs  of  wear  the  other  offices  would  be  forced  to  other  shelter  by  the 
monster  that  waxed  fat  and  fatter  on  the  ever  increasing  torrent  of 
food  forced  into  its  maw,  by  the  great  business  concerns  of  that  city, 
and  especially  by  the  endless  chain  of  publishing  houses  of  all  kinds, 
sending  matter  printed  in  all  forms  and  languages,  seasoned  with  all 
kinds  of  morals^  religious  and  political,  to  be  digested. 

New  York  did  not  enjoy  the  unenviable  distinction  of  being  the 
"onlyest"  in  this  respect;  "there  were  others."  But  in  1872  the  New 
York  post  office  became  sadly  crowded,  notwithstanding  that  it  had  ob- 
tained some  relief  the  preceding  year  by  discontinuing  the  practice  of 
making  a  more  or  less  complicated  distribution  of  all  mail,  and  substi- 
tuting for  it,  by  authority  of  the  General  Superintendent  of  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service,  the  separation  of  the  mail  by  states,  except  in  those 
cases  where  because  of  the  nearness  of  the  states  to  that  office,  and  the 
number  of  routes  by  which  they  were  supplied,  some  portion  of  them 
would  be  delayed  thereby.  In  the  greater  emergency  that  arose  in 
1873,  wherein  the  daily  newspaper  mail  accumulated  in  that  office  so 
largely  that  it  interfered  with  the  proper  treatment  and  prompt  dis- 
patch of  other  mail  of  a  higher  class,  and  usually  considered  of  a 
greater  intrinsic  value,  Mr.  Bangs,  after  making  a  personal  investiga- 
tion into  the  conditions  confronting  the  Department,  during  which  he 
visited  the  mailing  rooms  of  the  largest  publication  concerns,  and  held 
conferences  with  the  publishers,  returned  to  Washington,  D.  C,  and 
after  consulting  with  the  Postmaster  General  addressed  a  letter  to 
them,  which  bore  date  December  11,  1872.  In  this  letter  he  explained 
the  difficulties  of  the  situation  and  presented  a  remedy  which  he  had 
formulated,  and  asked  them  to  co-operate  in  putting  it  into  efifect. 
This  letter  he  sent  to  them  by  Captain  M.  J.  McGrath,  an  expert  in  the 
treatment  of  mails,  saying :  "He  will  fully  explain  the  details,  which 
are  few  and  simple,  to  all  to  whom  he  may  come,  and  is  fully  author- 
ized to  carry  them  into  effect  so  far  as  the  Department  is  concerned. 
He  will  be  assisted  by  the  postmaster  at  New  York  and  his  subordi- 
nates, and  also  the  Assistant  Superintendent  of  Railway  Mail  Service 
in  that  city."  And  he  added :  "I  respectfully  ask  the  attention  and 
co-operation  as  far  as  practicable  of  all  publishers  to  whom  he  may 
come,  believing  that  their  compliance  with  his  requests  will  greatly  re- 
sult in  expediting  the  transmission  of  all  mails  to  their  destination,  in 
much  less  time  than  has  heretofore  been  practicable  or  possible." 

This  simple  plan  was  the  "Stating"  of  the  mail ;  the  plan  inaugu- 
rated in  the  principal  post  offices  the  year  before.     It  was  accepted  in 


Hon.  R.  C.  Jackson 

I<ate  Stiperintendent  Second  Division  R.  M.  S. 


237 

clue  time  and  gave  the  relief  so  much  needed,  with  advantage  to  the 
publishers  and  the  Post  Office  Department.  It  was  adopted  a  little 
later  in  all  large  publication  houses  throughout  the  country,  and  some 
of  them  very  wisely  took  into  their  employ  some  of  our  expert  distri- 
buters and  placed  them  in  charge  of  their  mailing  rooms. 

A  time  came,  however,  some  years  later,  when  the  increase  of 
population,  the  rising  tide  of  business,  the  intellectual  and  material 
development  of  the  country  demanded  a  wonderful  increase  of  news 
and  information  of  all  kinds — spiritual,  business,  social  and  sensa- 
tional. Information  to  be  derived  from  books  of  essays,  poetry,  ro- 
mance and  history,  and  those  works  of  positive  scientific  knowledge 
that  are  regarded  as  standard  everywhere,  on  agriculture,  mineralogy, 
mathematics,  architecture,  geometry,  and  astronomy.  This  demand 
was  met  by  the  enlargement  of  printing  plants  and  publishing  houses, 
and  the  establishment  of  new  ones  in  different  parts  of  the  country, 
and  when  they  were  turning  out  their  full  capacity  the  volume  of 
second-class  matter  pouring  into  their  mailing  rooms  and  into  railway 
post  offices  and  post  offices  was  enormous ;  more  than  could  be  handled 
anywhere  by  the  Post  Office  Department  without  unwarranted  addi- 
tional expenditure  of  money.  Action  was  taken  at  once  to  have  all 
these  plants  begin,  or,  if  they  were  doing  so,  increase,  the  primary  sepa- 
ration of  their  output,  so  as  to  keep  a  large  per  cent,  of  it  out  of  their 
home  post  office,  advancing  its  delivery  and  relieving  the  railway  postal 
clerks  from  extra  duty,  many  times,  and  the  appropriation  for  clerk  hire 
from  demands  that  could  not  be  met  without  detriment  to  the  service 
at  large. 

In  1896,  when  we  were  very  much  embarrassed  with  this  mail,  the 
late  Richard  C.  Jackson,  who  was  one  of  our  most  intelligent  and 
capable  officers,  with  long  and  valuable  experience  in  postal  affairs  in 
New  York  City,  well  acquainted  with  some  of  its  people,  and  having 
the  entree  to  its  publishing  houses,  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  work  of 
systematizing,  improving,  and  enlarging  the  separations.  He  was  a 
Christian  gentleman,  resourceful,  diplomatic,  and  thoroughly  reliable ; 
was  well-known  personally  to  all  the  officers  of  our  service  and  either 
personally  or  by  reputation  to  thousands  of  our  boys.  He  had  the 
hearty  support  of  our  Division  Superintendents,  of  the  superintendents 
of  mails  in  post  offices,  and  the  earnest  approval  of  the  General  Super- 
intendent.    He  made  no  mistakes  and  was  eminently  successful. 

In  1896,  Mr.  Jackson  made  his  first  regular  report,  which  showed 
that  during  the  month  of  June  of  that  year,  publishers  in  sixteen  of  the 
principal  cities,  viz. :  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  St. 
Louis,  Cincinnati,  Baltimore,  San  Francisco,  Minneapolis,  Milwaukee, 


238 

Kansas  City,  Washington,  St.  Paul,  Cleveland,  Indianapolis  and  Brook- 
lyn, sent  into  their  respective  post  offices  a  total  of  291,589  sacks  of 
mail;  of  which  153,23"3  were  so  made  up  by  the  publishers  that  they 
were  dispatched  from  the  mailing  offices  without  further  separation, 
and  51,711  so  made  up  that  part  of  the  distribution,  which  would 
have  fallen  upon  the  post  office,  was  avoided.  The  remainder  con- 
sisted of  86,580  sacks  of  miscellaneous  or  "mixed"  matter,  which  was 
distributed  wholly  in  the  post  office,  and  consequently  was  not  dis- 
patched as  promptly  as  the  other  205,009  sacks.  These  86,580  sacks 
represented  29.7  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  and  as  was  said  in  my  annual 
report  for  that  year,  this  quantity  we  proposed  to  reduce,  at  the  same 
time  keeping  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  mail.  Remember,  in  this 
connection,  that  publishers  separated  very  little  to  routes  in  those  days 

SEPARATION  SCHEME  FOR  PUBLISHING  HOUSES,  1896. 

The  schemes  furnished  to  publishing  houses  provided  for  the 
separation  of  their  newspapers  and  periodicals  into  two  parts — states 
and  directs.  The  first  separation  was  the  placing  of  the  mail  addressed 
to  each  state  in  a  separate  sack  properly  labeled,  so  that  if  it  happened 
to  be  a  distant  state  it  could  be  dispatched  from  the  post  office  of  origin 
without  being  held  for  separation;  and  if  it  happened  to  be  a  nearby 
state  it  would  go  directly  to  the  sorting  table  at  the  post  office,  at 
which  it  would  be  worked  instead  of  passing  through  the  preliminary 
separation  to  which  all  mixed  mail  must  be  subjected. 

The  second  division — "directs" — consisted  of  placing  all  papers 
addressed  to  one  post  office  in  a  separate  sack  properly  labeled,  so  that 
it  would  not  only  avoid  detention  for  separation  at  the  office  of  origin, 
but  would  not  need  to  be  opened  for  separation  until  it  arrived  at  the 
office  of  destination. 

In  the  case  of  daily  newspapers,  and  sometimes  in  the  case  of 
other  periodicals,  the  publisher  was  called  upon  to  make  a  separation 
for  routes,  this  consisting  of  placing  all  papers  for  a  certain  R.  P.  O. 
line  in  a  sack  by  themselves,  properly  labeled,  so  as  to  escape  detention 
for  separation  at  the  office  of  origin,  although  the  papers  might  have 
to  be  handled  once  or  twice  in  the  R.  M.  S.  before  reaching  destination. 
The  route  separation  was  not  availed  of  as  often  as  the  state  or  direct 
separations,  because  it  required  either  expert  knowledge  on  the  part  of 
the  newspaper  employees,  or  else  consulting  a  technical  list  for  the 
arrangement  of  the  galley  slips,  figures  being  used  alongside  of  each 
subscriber's  name  to  indicate  the  particular  R.  P.  O.  line  to  which  the 
paper  should  be  assigned. 


239 

Any  newspaper  not  made  up  in  any  of  the  three  separations  above 
described  would  be  sent  to  the  post  office  in  a  sack  labeled  "Mixed," 
and  this  meant  that  the  individual  papers  would  sometimes  have  to  be 
handled  twice  in  succession  in  the  post  office  before  they  could  be  dis- 
patched on  the  way  to  destination. 

The  country,  east,  west  and  south,  received  the  benefit  of  Mr. 
Jackson's  knowledge  and  experience,  for  after  he  had  placed  the  sepa- 
ration system  in  progressive  condition  in  the  New  York  City  publishing 
establishments,  he  visited  other  cities,  and  accompanied  by  Division 
Superintendents  of  Railway  Mail  Service,  and  sometimes  by  Superin- 
tendents of  Mails  in  post  offices,  called  upon  the  managers  of  these 
plants,  held  conferences  with  them  on  the  subject  that  was  so  familiar 
to  him,  and  labored  to  imbue  them  with  his  own  enthusiasm  and  belief 
in  the  efficiency  of  this  plan  of  expediting  their  mails,  while  saving  the 
whole  general  mail  from  delay  in  dispatch  by  reason  of  the  blockades 
superinduced  by  the  enormous  quantity  of  undistributed  matter  mailed 
by  them  daily.  He  was  impressive,  as  a  sincere  man  always  is  who 
understands  his  business  thoroughly,  and  made  excellent  progress. 
But  in  most  cases  these  visits  were  repeated  several  times,  unless  the 
Division  Superintendent  and  the  Superintendent  of  Mails  were  watch- 
ful, energetic  and  pleasantly  aggressive.  In  that  event  he  could  turn 
his  attention  to  some  new  and  uncultivated  field ;  sometimes  a  cam- 
paign would  be  entered  upon  which  was  prolonged  because  the  concern 
was  unwilling  to  assume  additional  charges,  that  it  believed  the  Govern- 
ment should  meet  itself,  but  in  the  final  "round  up"  they  were  all 
branded.  Many  times  failure  in  some  particular  case  would  seem  to 
be  in  sight,  but  a  little  more  argument,  accompanied  by  undeniable 
statements  of  facts,  illustrations  of  the  situation,  showing  what  would 
inevitably  be  the  results  in  the  one  case  and  in  the  other,  etc.,  would 
cause  them  to  yield.  All  that  has  been  accomplished  in  this  line  of 
work,  and  it  is  very  great,  has  been  through  the  earnest  efforts  of  the 
railway  mail  service,  supported  largely  by  "smothered"  post  offices. 
When  we  undertook  to  secure  greater  easement  from  want  of  room, 
distributers,  and  delay  in  dispatch  of  mails,  brought  about  by  the 
rapidly  increasing  volume  of  second-class  matter,  we  did  not  expect  to 
win  "hands  down."  These  pages  show  that  the  railway  mail  service 
has  been  compelled  to  fight  persistently  for  every  foot  that  it  has  ad- 
vanced since  its  inauguration.  Perhaps  the  fact  that  its  pathway  has 
not  been  cleared  of  obstructions  by  the  law-makers,  or  strewn  with 
flowers  by  those  whom  we  struggled  to  benefit,  may  account  for  the 
bouquets  thrown  at  it  quite  frequently  in  these  days.  Nevertheless  it 
would  not  be  safe  to  store  its  artillery  and  ammunition  and  rely  upon 


240 

a  more  liberal  trend  of  disposition  ;  it  is  best  to  be  ready  to  step  into 
the  forum,  the  places  of  business,  and  to  present  reasons  why  what  is 
urged  is  just,  and  in  their  interest;  the  wise  business  man  is  amenable 
to  reason  when  he  recognizes  it. 

Not  being  accustomed  to  have  things  go  our  way  on  first  appli- 
cation, we  were  not  disposed  to  be  despondent  because  the  large  ma- 
jority of  the  publication  houses  in  the  cities  named  declined  to  consider 
the  matter;  others  had,  and  we  were  sure  these  would  as  soon  as  they 
realized  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  Post  Office  Department  could  do 
for  them,  their  competitors  would  enter  states,  cities,  hamlets  and 
crossroads  quicker  than  they,  so  long  as  they  continued  to  refuse  to 
separate  their  mails. 

In  addition  recommendation  was  made  in  1895,  "That  section 
3883,  Revised  Statutes,  section  306_,  Postal  Laws  and  Regulations,  be 
so  amended  as  to  require  publishers  to  make  such  primary  separation 
of  their  periodicals  for  mailing  as  the  Postmaster  General  may  direct." 
It  was  also  recommended  that  section  840  of  the  Postal  Laws  and 
Regulations — 

Section  840.  Canvas  sacks  may  be  taken  by  publishers. — When- 
ever, in  any  post  office  in  large  towns  and  cities,  there  is  an  extreme 
necessity  of  extending  to  publishers  the  privilege  of  taking  canvas 
sacks  to  their  printing  offices  to  be  there  filled  with  printed  matter  for 
the  mails,  the  postmaster  must  keep  an  exact  account  with  each  pub- 
lisher of  the  number  of  sacks  taken  from  and  returned  to  his  post 
office  on  every  occasion.  Besides  the  account  kept  in  the  post  office 
for  that  purpose,  pass  books  should  be  used  between  the  several  print- 
ing offices  and  the  post  office.  No  sacks  should  be  delivered  to  any 
publisher,  except  on  presentation  of  his  pass  book,  in  which  he  is  to 
be  debited  with  the  number  of  sacks  intrusted  to  him  and  credited  with 
the  number  returned  :  and  for  the  due  return  of  all  sacks  so  intrusted 
to  him  each  publisher  shall  be  held  responsible — 

be  modified  to  read  as  follows : 

(Amendment.) 

Postmasters  may  extend  to  publishers  and  others  the  privilege  of 
taking  canvas  sacks  to  their  printing  or  mailing  offices,  to  be  there 
filled  with  printed  matter  for  the  mails,  upon  the  following  conditions : 

(1)  That  matter  of  the  second  and  third  classes  sent  to  post 
offices  must  be  made  up,  each  state  or  route  separate,  where  the  quan- 
tity for  any  one  state  or  territory  is  in  excess  of  50  pieces,  except 
where  the  mail  is  made  up  at  publication  or  mailing  offices  by  routes 
under  the  direction  of  the  postmaster  or  Superintendent  of  the  Rail- 


241 

way  Mail  Service,  or  where  the  matter  is  all  for  one  post  office,  for 
foreign  countries,  or  for  free  county  circulation. 

(2)  That  each  sack  shall  be  labeled  with  a  shipping  tag,  or  other 
proper  label,  which  shall  show  the  route,  office,  state  or  territory  to 
which  the  matter  contained  therein  is  to  be  dispatched,  the  name  of  the 
publication,  if  a  regularly  entered  second-class  publication,  and  the 
name  and  address  of  the  printer  or  mailer,  if  mailed  by  other  than  the 
publisher.  Where  the  quantity  of  mail  matter  for  any  state  or  territory 
is  less  than  50  pieces,  such  matter  may  be  placed  in  one  or  more  sacks 
labeled  "Miscellaneous,"  the  label  or  shipping  tag  to  conform  to  above 
description  in  other  respects. 

(3)  Postmasters  must  keep  an  exact  account  with  each  publisher, 
printer,  or  mailer,  of  the  number  of  sacks  taken  from  and  returned  to 
his  post  office  on  every  occasion.  Besides  the  account  kept  in  the 
post  office  for  that  purpose,  pass  books  should  be  used  between  the 
several  printing  and  mailing  offices  and  the  post  office.  No  sacks  should 
be  delivered  for  any  publisher,  printer,  or  mailer,  except  on  presenta- 
tion of  his  pass  book,  in  which  he  is  to  be  debited  with  the  number  of 
sacks  intrusted  to  him  and  credited  with  the  number  returned,  and  for 
the  due  care  and  return  of  all  sacks  so  intrusted  to  him  each  publisher, 
printer,  or  mailer,  shall  be  held  responsible. 

A  recommendation  exactly  like  this  one,  or  similar  to  it,  appeared 
in  my  annual  reports  for  eleven  years,  the  last  in  1906 ;  but  no  action 
was  taken.  We  accomplished  much,  but  it  has  always  seemed  to  me 
best  that  such  important  matters  should  have  the  sanction  of  law, 
because  it  takes  them  out  of  the  domain  of  doubt  and  procrastination." 

Comparative  Statement. 
1896. 
Number  of  sacks  made  up  by  publishers  in  the  16  cities  named 

so  they  were  dispatched  without  re-separation   1,838,784 

Number  of  sacks  partly  made  up  as  above  and  advanced  in 

dispatch   thereby    621,324 

Number  of  sacks  of  miscellaneous  or  "mixed"  matter  sent 
to  the  post  office  for  full  distribution,  and  thereby  de- 
layed in  dispatch   1,038,960 

Or  29.7  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 

1906. 
Number  of  sacks  received  at  same  16  post  offices  from  pub- 
lishers made  up  so  as  to  insure  first  dispatch  without  ad- 
ditional   separation    6,499,068 


242 

Number  of  sacks  received  at  same  IG  post  offices  from  pub- 
lishers so  made  up  that  a  part  of  the  distribution  was 
saved  therein  and  advance  dispatch  insured   1,918,260 

Number  of  miscellaneous  or  "mixed"  sacks,  received  by  the 
same  offices,  from  publication  houses,  and  liable  to  con- 
siderable delay  in  dispatch  for  distribution 638,004 

This  was  7.1  per  cent,  of  the  whole;  a  reduction  of  22.6  per  cent. 

in  ten  years. 

The  whole  number  of  sacks  mailed,  as  above,  by  publishing  houses 

in  the  16  cities  during  the  fiscal  year  1896  was  3,499,068,  and  for  the 

fiscal  year  1906,  9,055,332 ;  a  gain  in  the  ten  years  of  5,556,264. 

The  1906  report  shows  that  the  list  of  16  post  offices  embraced  in 
the  original  statement  had  been  extended  to  cover  150  post  offices,  at 
which  publishing  houses  had  mailed  14,703,408  sacks  of  second-class 
matter,  made  up  as  heretofore  stated,  of  which  only  9  per  cent,  was 
"mixed." 

This  is  a  reading  age.  Newspapers,  magazines,  journals,  literary 
works  of  all  kinds,  travels,  wars,  heroes,  philosophers,  statesmen,  his- 
tory and  general  information  abound.  The  papers  and  magazines  are 
overflowing  with  information  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  world, 
and  presented  to  the  reader  in  beautiful  descriptive  language,  which 
charms  while  it  educates.  Some  of  the  magazines  are  wonderfully  in- 
teresting and  educational ;  the  best  matter  of  a  literary  character  that 
can  be  obtained  regardless  of  time,  the  number  of  trained  men  and 
women  required  to  collect  and  develop  it,  and  money,  make  them  so. 

It  is  one  of  the  great  glories  of  our  country  that  this  elevating 
material,  some  of  it,  can  be  found  at  most  of  our  firesides ;  on  the  table 
in  the  living  or  sitting  room  around  which  the  family  gather  after  the 
evening  meal  to  refresh  their  minds  in  conversation  and  reading;  or 
on  shelves  in  the  library  where  the  student  and  thinker  is  apt  to  seclude 
himself  that  his  thoughts  and  impressions  respecting  the  subject  he  is 
studying  may  be  submitted  quietly  to  the  court  of  absolute  knowledge. 
It  is  uplifting  to  know  that  our  people  are  so  eager  for  information, 
educational  and  physical  development.  This  spirit  will  grow  with  the 
food  it  is  fed  upon,  consequently  the  mail  of  this  class  will  continue  to 
increase  with  our  intellectual  capacity,  and  I  hope  that  progressive,  en- 
tertaining, educational,  and  elevating  publications — all  that  are  not  dis- 
tinctively immoral — will,  but  that  which  is  should  be  religiously  excluded 
from  circulation  in  and  out  of  the  mail.  We  can  depend  upon  our 
good  friends  of  the  field  force  of  the  Department  to  keep  a  watchful 
eye  on  this  feature  of  the  postal  service,  and  the  General  Superinten- 


243 

dent  with  the  Division  Superintendents,  Superintendents  of  Mails  in 
post  offices,  Assistant  Superintendents,  Chief  Clerks ;  and  the  special- 
ist, Assistant  Superintendent  C.  H.  McBride,  the  energetic  and  suc- 
cessful successor  of  Mr.  Jackson,  will  see  that  publication  houses  do 
not  forget  that  the  splendid  work  they  are  performing  in  making  up 
to  states,  offices  and  routes,  is  their  salvation  in  the  matter  of  quick 
delivery,  and  reasonable  charges. 

SPANISH  AMERICAN  WAR. 

Thus  far  in  its  career  the  railway  mail  service  has  met  and  over- 
come every  emergency  that  has  confronted  it. 

Born  about  ten  months  before  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  and 
badly  nourished  in  the  beginning,  it  grew  slowly  for  some  years  after 
its  introduction,  so  slowly  during  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1865, 
an  eventful  period,  that  it  did  not  become  a  factor  in  the  disposition  of 
the  mails  passing  to  and  from  the  armies  in  the  field.  That  became  one 
of  the  missions  of  the  old-established  distributing  post  offices  and  other 
post  offices  in  closer  proximity  to  the  columns  maneuvering  against 
the  enemy.  All  these  were  strengthened  as  the  mail  increased  suffi- 
ciently to  separate  it  into  armies,  corps,  divisions,  brigades,  regiments 
and  sometimes  companies,  with  the  least  delay  possible,  so  that  it  might 
pass  on  at  once  to  the  soldiers  addressed  through  the  military  postal 
system  organized  by  the  commanders  of  the  army  and  their  staffs,  by 
authority  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  with  the  advice  and  assistance 
of  those  who  were  regarded  as  experts  in  those  days.  This  system 
became  very  effective  as  the  war  progressed,  considering  the  difficulties 
encountered,  such  as  the  strategem  employed  by  both  armies  to  check- 
mate, disorganize,  destroy  or  capture  the  foe ;  these  movements  often 
resulted  in  delaying  the  advance  or  hastening  the  retreat,  through  the 
burning  of  bridges ;  the  capture,  plundering  and  burning  of  wagon 
trains  conveying  supplies  of  all  kinds  and  the  mails  to  the  boys  at  the 
front,  and  on  the  return  trips  those  addressed  to  their  homes  in  distant 
states.  On  such  occasions  the  mails  were  plundered,  and  that  not 
convertible  to  some  purpose  of  the  enemy  cast  into  the  flames  to  be 
burned  with  other  non-convertible  matter.  Neither  army  had  a  mo- 
noply  of  this  method  of  disposing  of  the  correspondence  of  the  enemy, 
but  barring  these  unpleasant  incidents  the  service  was  quite  good. 

I  have  said  that  the  railway  post  office  was  not  a  factor  in  the 
disposal  of  the  army  mail  during  the  Civil  War ;  whatever  relief  it 
contributed  to  this  was  indirect  and  infinitesimal,  consisting  in  such  gain 
of  time  by  the  post  offices  mentioned  as  the  partial  assumption  of  the 
distribution  of  mail  local  to  the  lines,  to  star  routes  heading  from  offices 


244 

on  the  lines,  and  to  connecting  intermediary  lines,  as  the  limited  facili- 
ties and  knowledge  available  permitted.  But  the  service  was  very 
limited  then ;  counting  all  its  clerks^  route  and  local  agents,  the  force 
numbered  but  (512  two  months  after  peace  was  declared,  and  it  was 
two  years  later  before  the  first  full  railway  post  office  car  was  built 
and  put  in  service.  A  cut  of  this  car,  the  letter  case  of  which  I  helped 
to  label,  may  be  seen  on  page  167.  It  was  built  in  1867.  Previous  to 
that  time  the  whole  service  operated  in  apartments  of  cars,  but  by 
October,  1871,  when  the  great  fire  which  almost  destroyed  Chicago 
startled  the  business  world,  the  number  of  employees  in  the  whole  ser- 
vice had  increased  to  1,582,  and  several  additional  lines  of  full  railway 
post  offices  had  been  established.  The  second  fire  occurred  in  July, 
1874,  and  swept  through  that  section  of  the  south  side,  which  touched 
the  southern-most  line  of  the  first  fire,  destroyed  the  post  office  and 
hundreds  of  other  buildings ;  the  force  of  the  whole  service  then  was 
2,175,  and  full  lines  of  railway  post  offices  showed  a  fair  growth.  The 
third  fire  occurred  in  January,  1879,  and  deprived  us  once  more  of  our 
official  habitation ;  we  had  then  accumulated  2,609  employees  and 
many  more  full  railway  post  office  routes. 

On  each  of  these  occasions  the  Chicago  post  office  and  ours  also 
was  left  homeless  and  in  most  cases  the  fixtures  and  furniture  disap- 
peared very  largely  with  the  buildings.  The  first  fire  was  the  greatest 
by  far,  and  had  the  railway  post  office  cars  and  the  clerks  not  been 
available  the  greatest  blockade  of  mail  ever  known  would  have  ren- 
dered that  city  almost  helpless ;  but  postal  cars  fully  equipped  with 
expert  clerks  were  stationed  on  side  tracks  near  where  the  depots  stood 
and  received,  distributed,  and  dispatched  to  outgoing  trains.  All  this 
has  been  described  under  the  sub-heading  "Fires."  The  same  treat- 
ment was  applied  with  excellent  success  in  the  other  emergencies  of 
like  nature,  and  the  people  living  in  the  city  and  those  in  the  outside 
world  were  not  deprived  of  the  facilities  necessary  to  communicate 
with  each  other.  The  system  was  pre-eminently  successful,  illustrating 
what  a  well-disciplined,  determined,  expert,  energetic  and  faithful 
corps  of  railway  postal  employees  can  accomplish  when  emergencies 
inspire  them  to  assume  what  the  public  recognizes  as  the  most  import- 
ant work  allotted  to  such  an  office  as  the  one  in  Chicago,  an  office  that 
never  shirks  work  or  responsibility,  and  that  has  always  co-operated 
with  the  railway  mail  service  in  the  fullest  degree. 

These  experiences  pointed  out  the  best,  most  expeditious,  and  most 
economical  way  to  handle  large  accumulations  of  mail  in  emergencies, 
and  advantage  was  taken  of  it  when  war  was  declared  against  Spain 
by  the  United  States  on  the  21st  of  April,  1898,  and  the  President  or- 


2-15 

dered  the  army  mobilized,  and  issued  a  call  for  125,000  additional 
troops  on  the  22nd  of  the  same  month  and  75,000  later. 

The  army  then  in  existence  commenced  to  assemble  in  designated 
camps  in  southern  and  nearby  eastern  states.  The  Fifth  Army  Corps, 
which  was  composed  more  largely  of  regulars,  trained  soldiers,  than 
any  other,  rendezvoused  at  Tampa,  Lakeland,  Jacksonville  and  Miami. 
It  was  camped  on  the  threshold  of  Tampa  and  around  it,  so  as  to  have 
at  hand  the  most  experienced  soldiers  when  the  hour  struck  for  the 
invasion  of  Cuba ;  back  of  these  were  the  camps  of  Chickamauga, 
Chattanooga,  Camp  Thomas,  Falls  Church  (Va.),  Hempstead  (N.  Y.), 
and  later  on  at  other  places.  In  a  brief  time  the  mails  began  to  pour 
into  Tampa,  Miami,  Chickamauga,  Camp  Thomas,  and  were  soon  too 
large  for  those  offices  to  handle,  notwithstanding  that  the  clerical  force 
of  each  was  increased  largely  and  frequently,  and  then  the  Charlotte 
and  Jacksonville,  the  Jacksonville  and  Tampa,  the  Waycross  and  Tam- 
pa and  the  Jacksonville  and  Miami  railway  post  offices  were  reinforced 
and  commenced  to  relieve  the  offices  at  or  near  the  camps  named.  Soon 
full  cars  equipped  with  strong  crews  of  railway  postal  clerks  were  placed 
on  side  tracks  at  Lytic,  Ga.,  to  handle  the  mails  passing  in  and  out  of 
Camp  Chickamauga.  Later  a  line  of  -lO-foot  postal  cars  was  placed 
on  the  Jacksonville  and  Miami  route.  On  June  IG,  1898,  a  50-foot 
postal  car  of  the  Plant  system,  fully  equipped  with  clerks,  was  placed 
on  a  side  track  at  Tampa,  and  three  days  afterwards  another,  similarly 
equipped,  was  placed  on  the  same  track. 

Thereafter  the  distribution  and  dispatch  of  the  outgoing  and  in- 
coming mail  for  and  from  the  soldiers  in  camp  near  Tampa  was  ac- 
complished in  these  cars,  but  this  arrangement  was  not  made  until  it 
had  been  demonstrated  that  the  Tampa  post  office  was  not  ecjual  to 
the  work.  The  mail  was  handled  skillfully  and  promptly  in  the  pos- 
tal cars ;  it  was  separated  to  regiments  and  batteries,  the  same  as  in 
other  camps  where  our  cars  were  stationed,  and  was  satisfactory  in 
the  main  to  the  army.  But  when  the  Fifth  Army  Corps  was  embarked 
upon  the  thirty-five  transports  that  were  to  convey  it  to  Cuba,  regi- 
mental organization  was  not  observed  closely  in  many  instances,  that 
is,  sometimes  parts  of  regiments  were  placed  on  two  or  three  trans- 
ports, and  while  it  was  the  general  opinion  that  the  army  would  de- 
part at  once,  it  remained  in  the  harbor  several  days,  and  during  that 
time  authorized  representatives  of  the  army  called  at  the  post  office 
for  the  mail  and  returned  with  it  to  the  transports  and  delivered  it. 
The  mail  for  a  divided  regiment  was  delivered  to  the  detachment  first 
discovered,  who  would  open  it,  take  out  what  was  addressed  to  it  and 


246 

throw  the  residue  with  the  outgoing  new  mail  to  the  post  office,  in- 
stead of  sending  it  to  the  transports  carrying  the  other  detachments. 
Thus  each  would  be  enabled  to  take  out  what  belonged  to  it ;  that  is, 
handle  it  as  was  customary  on  star  routes — put  the  mail  for  all  the 
offices  on  a  route  in  a  way  pouch,  which  each  postmaster  opened  in 
regular  turn  and  relieved  of  the  mail  addressed  to  his  office,  replacing 
it  with  such  as  had  accumulated  therein,  after  the  previous  call  of  the 
stage,  for  other  offices,  then  close  and  lock  the  pouch  and  hand  it  to 
the  Jehu  on  the  box,  who  cracked  the  whip  over  the  backs  of  his 
mettlesome  steeds  and  moved  at  a  rattling  pace  to  the  next  post 
office. 

The  treatment  the  mail  received  on  the  transports  while  they 
remained  in  the  harbor  caused  considerable  delay  in  its  receipt  by 
some  of  our  brave  soldiers,  and  put  much  additional  labor  on  the 
clerks  who  rehandled  the  mail  in  the  cars.  This  could  have  been 
avoided  if  the  military  postal  service  had  been  better  systematized,  or 
if  the  fact  had  been  made  known  to  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  work- 
ers in  the  cars,  that  some  of  the  regiments  were  divided  into  two  or 
more  parts  when  the  corps  was  embarked  on  the  transports,  and  that 
each  part,  in  such  cases,  was  assigned  to  a  different  transport.  If 
this  had  been  done  the  mail  for  each  detachment  would  have  been 
pouched  separately  and  the  name  of  the  transport  to  which  it  was 
assigned  placed  on  the  label.  The  easiest  way  to  accomplish  this  was 
adopted  by  that  old  veteran,  the  senior  superintendent  of  division, 
and  himself  a  soldier  of  the  Civil  War,  who  is  always  ready  for  any 
emergency  and  has  always  had  the  confidence  of  his  superior  officers, 
Mr.  Lynch  M.  Terrell,  Superintendent  of  the  Fourth  Division,  after 
he  had  made  a  thorough  investigation  of  complaints  entered  by  Gen- 
eral Shafter  and  Inspector  General  Breckinridge ;  that  is,  he  caused 
the  mail  to  be  made  up  by  companies. 

The  destination  of  the  transports  being  unknown  to  any  one 
connected  with  the  mail  service  when  they  steamed  out  of  Florida 
Bay,  and  away  from  Key  West  for  Cuba,  it  was  necessary  to  forward 
the  mail  as  fast  as  it  was  prepared  for  dispatch  to  Key  West,  that  be- 
ing the  nearest  point  to  deep  water  and  Cuba,  to  be  dispatched  to  the 
army  and  navy  as  soon  as  heard  from,  and  the  service  secured  of  an 
army  transport  bound  for  the  objective  or  real  point  of  occupation; 
but  before  that  time  arrived  a  vast  quantity  of  mail  accumulated  at 
Key  West.  This  was  dispatched  on  June  24,  1898,  on  the  collier 
Lebanon  to  Santiago.  The  first  mail  received  from  General  Shafter's 
command  arrived  at  Key  West,  July  28,  1898.     In  the  interim  yellow 


Hon.  Lynch  M.  Terrell 

Superintendent  P'ourth  Division  R.  M.  S. 
(See  Appendix) 


247 

fever  had  made  its  appearance  in  Cuba  with  fatal  results.  Eben 
Brewer,  the  Postal  Agent  for  Cuba,  was  stricken  and  died  at  Santiago, 
July  15th;  he  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Kempner. 

What  was  accomplished  by  the  railway  mail  service  at  Tampa, 
Chickamauga,  Camp  Thomas,  and  Miami,  was  accomplished  at  other 
camps  later,  but  at  the  three  first  named  camps  the  capacity  and  re- 
sourcefulness of  that  service  were  severely  tested  and  not  found  want- 
ing. At  the  same  time  it  must  be  admitted  that,  in  comparison  with 
the  general  distribution  performed  by  the  railway  postal  clerks  on 
their  regular  runs,  it  is  simple  at  the  best,  being  in  the  nature  of 
directs,  consisting  of  regiments,  companies,  batteries,  war  vessels, 
and  detachments ;  nor  is  it  as  difficult  as  that  made  in  railway  post 
offices  stationed  on  side  tracks  near  depots  to  handle  the  mails  after 
the  post  office  of  a  great  city  has  been  destroyed,  and  the  hazard  to 
life  and  limb  is  far  less  than  that  to  which  the  railway  postal  clerk  is 
subjected  daily  when  on  duty  in  times  of  peace. 

The  following  letter  shows  that  much  anxiety  was  connected  with 
the  service  however: 

Atlanta,  Ga.,  June  18,  1898. 

Sir  :  On  receipt  of  your  telegram  of  the  13th  instant,  complaint 
of  Inspector-General  Breckinridge,  regarding  service  at  Port  Tampa, 
Fla.,  I  at  once  proceeded  to  that  point,  in  the  meantime  instructing 
Chief  Clerk  Beaver  to  proceed  immediately  to  Port  Tampa  and  use 
his  best  efforts  to  relieve  the  situation. 

On  arrival  at  Port  Tampa  on  the  morning  of  the  15th  instant,  1 
found  that  Chief  Clerk  Beaver,  with  the  aid  of  postal  clerks  off  duty, 
had  gotten  the  army  mail  in  fairly  good  shape,  and  had  arranged  for  a 
postal  car  to  be  placed  on  side  track  for  the  redistribution  of  the  Fifth 
Army  Corps  mail. 

Upon  investigation  I  found  that  the  mail  for  the  army  at  Tampa 
and  Port  Tampa  is  made  up  by  regiments  and  batteries,  the  same  as 
we  are  doing  at  Chickamauga.  The  mails  were  being  fairly  delivered 
up  to  the  time  the  troops  went  aboard  the  transports ;  then  the  trouble 
commenced.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  some  of  the  regiments  were 
assigned  to  as  many  as  three  or  four  transports.  As  they  remained 
several  days  in  the  harbor,  carriers  from  the  steamers  would  call  at 
the  post  office  and  take  the  mail  for  the  several  regiments  to  the  steam- 
ers. This  they  would  cut  open,  take  out  what  they  wished  and  throw  the 
residue,  together  with  outgoing  letters,  to  the  post  office,  instead  of  send- 
ing them  to  the  other  steamers  carrying  the  regiment.  The  sack,  not  be- 
ing labeled,  would  be  thrown  into  the  post  office  unnoticed  by  the  post- 


248 

master  or  his  two  clerks,  they  having  more  than  tliey  could  do  to  at- 
tend to  the  cancellation  and  delivery  of  outgoing  mail.  In  many  cases 
carriers  from  the  steamers  would  come  into  the  office,  look  through 
the  sacks,  and,  finding  a  sack  for  the  regiment  to  which  they  were 
assigned,  would  open  it  and  take  out  such  as  they  wanted,  leaving  the 
balance  on  the  floor  of  the  office.  In  this  way  the  mail  for  the  Fifth 
Army  Corps  was  so  thoroughly  mixed  that  the  force  of  the  office  was 
powerless  to  do  anything  with  it.  On  Sunday,  the  11th,  a  lieutenant 
and  two  experienced  post  office  clerks  were  sent  to  the  Port  Tampa 
office  to  assist  the  postmaster  in  putting  the  mail  in  good  shape,  which 
they  did.  However,  on  Monday  morning,  representatives  from  the 
transports  came  to  the  office,  and,  as  before,  cut  open  the  packages  of 
letters  and  mixed  them  as  they  did  on  a  previous  occasion.  Thus  you 
will  see  that  the  railway  mail  service  was  not  responsible  for  the 
handling  of  this  mail  in  the  Port  Tampa  office. 

The  Port  Tampa  office,  also  the  Tampa  office,  has  not  the  room 
and  facilities  for  handling  the  large  quantities  of  mails  that  they  have 
been  required  to  handle,  which  has  resulted  in  more  or  less  confusion. 

Each  of  the  regiments  forming  the  Fifth  Army  Corps,  now  en 
route  to  Cuba,  have  left  detachments  in  the  vicinity  of  Port  Tampa. 
We  have  great  difficulty  in  securing  names  of  companies  forming 
these  detachments.  In  order  to  facilitate  the  delivery  of  the  Fifth 
Army  Corps  mail  we  are  tying  out  letter  mail  by  companies. 

The  redistribution  of  army  mail  at  Port  Tampa  is  under  the  per- 
sonal supervision  of  Chief  Clerk  Beaver.  With  the  help  under  his 
charge  I  feel  assured  that  we  will  have  no  further  trouble  at  that 
point  as  far  as  our  branch  of  the  service  is  concerned.  The  Fifth 
Army  Corps  mail  we  are  holding  at  Tampa  until  further  instructed. 

Very  respectfully, 

L.  M.  Terrell,  Superintendent. 
Hon.  James  E.  White, 

General  Supt.  Railway  Mail  Service, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

PHILIPPINES. 

The  mails  for  and  from  the  troops  assigned  to  the  Philippines 
were  not  handled  the  same  as  those  for  the  army  and  navy  in  Cuba, 
or  in  camps  in  Florida,  Tennessee,  and  elsewhere,  presumedly  prepar- 
ing for  service  on  that  island,  except  those  that  were  afterwards  with- 
drawn from  these  and  assigned  to  the  Philippines.    These  were  made 


Hon.  Frank  W.  Vaillk 

Superintendent  Thirteenth  Division  R.  M.  S. 
(See  Appendix) 


249 

up  in  the  railway  post  office  cars  at  Tampa  and  Chickamauga  as  long 
as  received. 

Admiral  Dewey  moved  into  Manila  Bay,  May  1,  1898,  and  de- 
stroyed the  Spanish  fleet  therein  that  day,  and  occupied  Cavite  on  the 
7th.  On  the  25th  of  the  same  month  16  bags  of  mail  for  Admiral 
Dewey's  fleet  were  dispatched  to  Manila  from  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
On  the  Gth  of  June,  Mr.  Frank  W.  Vaille,  Assistant  Superintendent 
Railway  Mail  Service,  Portland,  Oregon,  was  ordered  to  proceed  to 
San  Francisco,  to  look  after  the  mails  to  and  from  the  Philippines, 
and  to  be  ready  to  go  to  Manila  at  a  moment's  notice.  As  the  order 
contemplated,  Mr.  Vaille  on  his  arrival  at  San  Francisco  called  on 
General  Merritt,  who  had  been  ordered  to  take  command  of  the  land 
forces  to  be  sent  to  the  Philippines,  and  made  arrangements  for  the 
transportation  of  himself  and  two  clerks  and  such  supplies  and  equip- 
ment as  would  enable  him  to  establish  a  post  office  in  the  military 
camp  at  or  near  Manila. 

On  June  9th  a  station  of  the  San  Francisco  post  office  was  or- 
dered in  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  on  the  15th  Mr.  Vaille  sailed  on 
the  ship  China  for  his  destination.  Before  the  China  arrived  at  Hon- 
olulu, Hawaiian  Islands,  he  gathered  up  the  mail  that  had  accumulated 
for  the  United  States  and  Europe,  also  secured  that  which  had  been 
written  on  other  vessels,  lying  in  the  harbor  when  he  arrived  and 
being  tendered  the  use  of  the  post  office  by  the  postmaster,  made  it  up 
and  arranged  for  its  dispatch  by  the  first  vessel  sailing  from  that  port 
for  San  Francisco. 

Mr.  Vaille  arrived  in  the  harbor  of  Cavite  July  16,  1898,  and  found 
Manila  still  in  possession  of  the  Spaniards.  He  came  there  with 
what  was  known  as  the  Second  Expedition  under  command  of  Gen- 
eral Green,  but,  as  was  natural  and  right,  was  not  landed  until  the 
troops  were  disembarked.  In  the  meantime  General  Merritt,  who  was 
assigned  as  commander  in  chief  of  our  troops  on  the  islands,  arrived, 
and  three  days  later  Mr.  Vaille  with  his  supplies  and  equipment  went 
ashore,  and  on  the  29th  reported  that  he  had  a  very  fair  office  at 
Cavite.  While  waiting  to  be  landed,  he  heard  that  the  steamer  Olym- 
pia  would  sail  for  Hongkong  on  the  18th,  taking  such  letters  as  were 
ready  for  dispatch,  with  proper  postage,  to  the  United  States  Consul 
at  Hongkong.  This  was  in  accordance  with  instructions  from  Admiral 
Dewey.  Mr.  Vaille  called  upon  him  and  requested  permission  to  dispatch 
a  closed  pouch  for  San  Francisco  direct,  to  contain  all  mail  from  the 
army  and  navy.  This  was  denied,  so  he  received  mail  on  the  China, 
made  it  up  and  dispatched  it  by  the  Olympia  on  the  19th.  There 
were  1,535  letters,  4  packages  and  -1  papers.    The  postage  amounted  to 


250 

$131.15  and  was  placed  in  an  envelope  and  sealed  up  in  a  sack  ad- 
dressed to  the  United  States  Consul  at  Hongkong.  After  he  opened 
an  office  in  Cavite  he  called  on  the  Admiral  and  requested  that  a 
launch  be  provided  him  to  collect  the  mails  from  the  vessels  and 
troops,  distance  about  two  miles  from  the  office  at  Cavite.  This  was 
promised,  but  he  was  again  advised  that  all  mail  must  be  sent  via  the 
United  States  Consul  at  Hongkong.  The  Admiral  was  simply  giving 
such  instructions  as  govern  the  navy  under  all  similar  conditions. 

The  Post  Office  Department  was  advised  of  the  decision  and  com- 
municated with  the  Navy  Department  at  once ;  request  being  made  that 
the  Admiral  be  advised  to  allow  Assistant  Superintendent  Vaille  to 
handle  the  mail  in  accordance  with  instructions  from  the  Postmaster 
General.  This  was  agreed  to  and  the  representatives  of  both  Depart- 
ments advised  of  it  by  cable. 

On  July  31st  Mr.  Vaille  informed  the  Department  that  Jackson 
and  Evans,  who  were  operating  two  steamers  between  Cavite  and 
Hongkong,  had  agreed  to  carry  a  closed  pouch,  and  said  that  the  two 
vessels,  with  the  United  States  transports  that  made  occasional  trips, 
would  provide  quite  satisfactory  service.  On  August  13th  the  army 
under  General  Merritt  entered  Manila.  Mr.  Vaille  was  with  it  and 
well  to  the  front,  as  usual.  He  proceeded  to  the  post  office  immediately 
and  upon  announcing  himself  was  pleasantly  received. 

Mr.  Vaille  wrote  under  date  of  August,  1898 : 

"We  entered  Manila  Saturday  afternoon,  August  13.  I  landed 
with  the  first  party  after  General  Merritt  and  at  once  announced  my- 
self at  the  post  office,  where  I  was  very  courteously  received.  I  slept 
in  the  post  office  that  night.  Sunday  morning  I  secured  a  letter  from 
General  Merritt  to  take  possession  of  the  post  office  and  retain  such 
employees  of  the  office  as  I  thought  necessary  for  the  proper  conduct 
of  the  office  in  the  maintenance  of  local  service.  Sunday  afternoon 
I  went  to  Cavite  to  arrange  for  the  transfer  of  supplies  from  that  point 
and  returned  Monday  noon,  having  arranged  to  have  all  property 
there  packed  at  once.  I  got  across  by  private  launch  and  could  not 
transfer  the  supplies.  Postmaster  General  Vallaenca,  while  very 
courteous,  was  very  reluctant  to  turn  over  the  government  property, 
because  the  Captain  General  had  not  officially  notified  him  that  the 
city  had  surrendered,  and,  while  the  city  of  Manila  might  have  surren- 
dered, the  records  of  his  office  pertained  to  the  whole  of  the  Philip- 
pines, and  not  to  Manila  alone.  While  I  could  have  used  force  to 
clear  the  building,  I  thought  it  best  to  endeavor  to  have  all  the  keys 
to  desks  and  rooms  in  my  possession,  as  everything  was  locked,-  and 


251 

had  I  attempted  to  use  force  I  would  have  found  it  necessary  to  force 
many  doors.  General  Merritt  gave  me  an  order  addressed  to  the 
Postmaster  General  to  turn  all  property  to  me,  to  satisfy  his  wish  to 
have  something  to  show  at  Madrid  for  the  abandonment  of  his  trust. 
This  evening,  after  hours  of  waiting,  I  received  the  keys  to  about 
everything  here.  I  announced  this  morning  the  names  of  the  clerks 
who  would  be  retained,  about  15  in  all,  and  was  surprised  when  I 
found  in  the  course  of  the  morning  that  the  office  was  gradually  de- 
serted by  all.  Searching  upstairs  I  found  a  labor  union  meeting  in 
progress,  composed  of  a  majority  of  the  205  employees.  An  inter- 
preter informed  me  that  the  Postmaster  General  had  told  them  that 
they  had  not  been  released  from  their  obligations  to  the  Spanish 
Government,  and  that  when  Spain  resumed  control  in  a  month  or  so 
their  salaries  would  be  paid  them  for  all  the  time.  If  it  is  decided 
to  retain  possession  here  for  any  length  of  time  a  postmaster  should 
be  appointed  for  Manila.  If  I  can  arrange  for  a  launch  for  the  de- 
livery and  collection  of  mail  to  the  fleet  and  to  Cavite  I  will  give  our 
people  a  fine  service.  So  far  I  know  of  no  complaints.  There  has 
been  no  delay  to  outgoing  or  incoming  mails  for  which  this  ofifice  was 
in  any  way  responsible." 

On  the  20th  of  August  twenty  bags  of  mail  arrived  from  Europe 
and  Asia.  This  mail  was  worked  under  Mr.  Vaille's  directions  and  that 
addressed  to  the  English,  French,  and  German  merchants  was  deliv- 
ered that  evening  and  the  next  morning.  The  Spanish  mail  could 
not  be  disposed  of  because  the  Spanish  employees  would  not  work. 
During  the  following  week  the  matter  was  taken  up  with  the  Spanish 
merchants  and  with  the  editor  of  one  of  the  papers,  and  it  was  ex- 
plained to  them  that  the  Spanish  employees  in  abandoning  the  office 
injured  their  people  only,  as  their  mail  would  not  be  touched  until 
these  men  returned  to  work.  The  editor  inserted  a  few  words  of 
wisdom  in  the  columns  of  his  paper,  the  merchants  howled,  and  the 
unsorted  mail  on  Sunday  morning  brought  the  Captain-General  to 
terms  and  he  sent  a  detail  of  officers  to  pick  out  the  army  mail,  and 
ordered  the  old  employees  back  to  work.  Soon  after  this  occurrence 
Mr.  Vaille  cabled  the  Post  Office  Department,  Washington,  D.  C.,  for 
authority  to  make  such  expenditures  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
Manila  post  office  as  would  insure  first-class  service ;  this  to  cover 
clerk  hire,  repairs,  local  transportation,  etc.  The  Postmaster  General 
granted  this  under  date  of  August  29.  The  authorization  relieved 
the  army  from  furnishing  feed  for  the  horses  in  the  post  office 
stables,  wagons  for  the  transportation  of  the  mails  from  the  post 
office  to  the  docks,  and  tugs  for  the  transportation  of  it  from  the  docks 


252 

to  the  outgoing  vessels.  Thus  the  Manila  post  office  was  placed  on  a 
good  footing,  and,  as  it  had  been  made  a  station  of  the  San  Francisco 
post  office,  the  mails  for  the  Philippine  Islands,  military  and  civilian, 
were  dispatched  to  it  from  the  latter ;  some  of  it  made  up  to  regiments 
was  taken  direct  from  the  dock  to  regimental  headquarters,  thus  avoid- 
ing considerable  delay  in  delivery. 

After  the  natives  of  the  islands  had  been  in  insurrection  against 
our  government  for  some  time,  it  became  necessary  to  employ  a  larger 
number  of  transports  to  convey  troops,  munitions  of  war,  and  supplies 
of  all  kinds,  and  the  mails  from  the  states  were  dispatched  on  them, 
as  well  as  mails  from  other  countries.  Some  of  these  transports  were 
faster  than  others ;  frequently  one  leaving  San  Francisco  several  days 
in  advance  of  another  would  be  overtaken  at  Honolulu  by  the  latter, 
and  as  it  was  desirable  to  deliver  the  mails  at  Manila  as  quick  as 
possible,  transfers  from  the  slow  to  the  fast  were  made  at  that  port. 
The  number  of  vessels  arriving  and  the  frequency  of  transfers  and 
departures  resulted  in  some  confusion ;  it  was  therefore  deemed  ad- 
visable to  assign  some  experienced  employee  of  the  railway  mail  ser- 
vice at  Honolulu,  who,  acting  in  unison  with  the  postmaster,  would 
superintend  the  transfers,  keep  record  of  them,  report  irregulari- 
ties, etc.,  and  the  first  selection  for  this  assignment  was  Mr.  J.  M. 
Johnson,  who  had  been  Chief  Clerk  Railway  Mail  Service  at  Los 
Angeles,  Cal. 

The  story  of  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  mail  business  of 
the  Army  of  the  Philippines  from  the  day  it  steamed  away  from  San 
Francisco,  Cal.,  until  it  anchored  in  Manila  Bay,  near  Cavite,  and  of 
the  intelligent,  earnest,  but  diplomatic  efforts  made  by  the  officer  in 
charge  of  it  to  supply  the  fleet  and  the  few  soldiers  then  there  with 
mail  from  their  homes;  to  collect,  assort,  and  dispatch  return  messages 
to  San  Francisco ;  to  establish  a  good  working  office  at  Cavite,  pending 
the  occupation  of  Manila  and  its  post  office ;  the  wisdom  shown  in 
handling  the  recalcitrant  clerks  of  the  Spanish  race  who  abandoned 
the  office  as  soon  as  he  took  possession  of  it,  and  his  management  of 
the  whole  service  there  as  Assistant  Superintendent  and  Director  of 
Posts,  ought  to  have  been  expected  from  so  able  and  experienced  an 
officer  of  the  railway  mail  service  as  Mr.  Frank  W.  Vaille. 

PORTO  RICO. 

The  method  of  handling  the  mails  for  our  forces  in  Porto  Rico 

and  for  the  residents  of  that  island  was  similar  to  that  pursued  with 

respect  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  but  on  a  very  much  smaller  scale. 

The  area  of  the  Philippines  is  127,853  square  miles  and  its  population, 


Hon.  H.  M.  Robinson 

Superintendent  Twelfth  Division  R.  M. 
(See  Appendix) 


253 

0,987,686 ;  that  of  Porto  Rico  is  3,606  square  miles  and  the  population, 
953,243,  which  did  not  make  a  spirited  defense. 

General  Miles  left  Cuba  with  an  expedition  on  the  21st  of  July 
and  occupied  the  harbor  of  Guaneca,  Porto  Rico,  on  the  25th,  and  on 
the  38th  received  the  formal  surrender  of  Ponce,  the  second  largest 
city  on  the  island,  without  firing  a  gun.  General  Brooks  sailed  from 
Newport  News,  July  28th,  for  Porto  Rico,  and  arrived  just  before 
hostilities  ceased.  There  were  a  few  more  skirmishes,  but  nothing 
serious,  and  by  virtue  of  the  protocol,  signed  by  both  governments  on 
the  12th  day  of  August,  hostilities  ceased  as  soon  as  information  of 
this  fact  was  communicated  to  the  commanders  of  the  military  and 
naval  forces  of  each  government,  which  was  the  following  day. 

Mr.  Nathan  Smith  of  the  Post  Office  Department  was  appointed 
the  first  postal  agent  for  Porto  Rico,  but  did  not  have  the  pleasure  of 
looking  from  its  shores  out  over  the  beautiful  waters  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  and  the  Caribbean  Sea.  On  the  21st  of  July,  Chief  Clerk  Rob- 
inson, with  two  clerks,  reported  to  him  at  Newport  News  to  take 
charge  of  the  distribution  and  dispatch  of  the  mails  passing  to  and 
from  Porto  Rico.  On  July  23rd,  Ponce  was  declared  a  station  of  the 
Washington,  D.  C,  post  office,  and  three  days  later  Mr.  Robinson  was 
directed  to  assume  the  duties  of  the  office  vacated  by  the  resignation 
of  Mr.  Smith,  and  on  the  28th  steamed  away  from  Newport  News  en 
route  to  his  new  field  of  operation.  He  and  his  assistants  arrived  at 
Ponce,  August  1,  and  were  assigned  quarters  in  the  custom  house 
by  orders  of  General  Miles.  To  fit  these  up  for  business,  two  distribut- 
ing tables  were  taken  from  the  old  post  office,  which  is  located  two  miles 
inland,  and  others  were  built  by  carpenters  detailed  from  the  army. 
When  these  were  placed,  Mr.  Robinson  commenced  receiving  and  deliv- 
ering mails,  and  making  them  up  for  dispatch.  This  was  on  the  3rd, 
just  nine  days  before  the  suspension  of  hostilities.  On  the  8th  of  Au- 
gust orders  were  issued  to  send  all  Porto  Rico  mail  to  the  Washington, 
D.  C,  post  office,  to  be  prepared  for  dispatch,  and  on  the  22nd  arrange- 
ments were  made  whereby  the  War  Department  agreed  to  dispatch  a 
steamer  from  New  York  every  Wednesday  for  San  Juan,  Ponce,  and 
Santiago.  Preceding  this  the  Postmaster  General  suspended  the  order 
of  April  16th,  discontinuing  postal  exchanges  with  Spain  and  her 
colonies,  and  on  the  23rd  of  August,  1898,  Guayama,  Mayaguez,  and 
San  Juan  were  made  stations  of  the  Washington,  D.  C,  post  office. 
To  these  were  added,  on  October  1st,  Aguadila,  Arecibo,  Humacao, 
and  Larez,  and  on  the  same  day  Mr.  Robinson  received  authority  to 
employ  mail  messenger  between  San  Juan  and  Ponce,  which  covered 
very  many  of  the  important  offices  on  the  island.     Later  on  railway 


254 

post  office  service  was  established  on  a  line  of  steamers  between  New 
York  City  and  Porto  Rico,  and  the  service  on  the  island  was  placed 
in  much  better  condition  than  before.  This  was  due  to  the  peaceable 
spirit  shown  by  the  people,  the  compactness  of  the  island,  the  close 
proximity  to  our  shores,  the  shortness  of  the  campaign,  and  the  energy, 
capacity,  and  resourcefulness  of  Mr.  Robinson,  who  remained  in 
charge  of  the  service  in  Porto  Rico  until  relieved  by  the  appointment 
of  a  Director  of  Posts,  when  he  was  reinstated  as  Chief  Clerk,  $1,000, 
and  returned  to  the  Fourth  Division  (July  19,  1899).  He  resigned 
to  take  effect  July  31,  1900,  and  was  appointed  Special  Agent  and  des- 
ignated Assistant  Superintendent  Railway  Mail  Service,  $1,600  per 
annum,  August  1,  1900,  and  assigned  to  duty  in  charge  of  the  mails 
of  the  army  in  China  during  the  Boxer  uprising  of  1900,  which  lasted 
about  eight  months.  In  May,  1901,  the  Ninth  Regiment,  United  States 
Infantry,  sailed  from  China  for  the  Philippine  Islands  and  Mr.  Robin- 
son accompanied  it  and  served  there  under  the  Director  of  Posts  as 
his  assistant  until  his  resignation  was  tendered  and  accepted  to  take 
effect  December  19,  1903 ;  he  was  immediately  reinstated  as  Chief 
Clerk  of  Railway  Mail  Service,  Fourth  Division ;  promoted  to  Assist- 
ant Superintendent,  $1,600  per  annum,  May  18,  1904:;  promoted  to  be 
Superintendent  of  the  Twelfth  Division,  $3,000  per  annum,  head- 
quarters. New  Orleans,  La.,  to  be  effective  November  11,  1908. 

Mr.  Robinson  has  served  in  many  capacities  and  has  always  met 
the  expectations  of  his  superiors  and  friends. 

The  story  of  the  upbuilding  of  the  railway  mail  service  since 
1864,  when  the  system  now  in  operation  in  our  own  country  had  a 
limited  introduction,  reads  almost  like  a  fairy  tale.  There  were  then 
employed  in  the  service,  including  railway  post  office  clerks,  route 
agents,  mail  route  messengers,  and  local  agents,  572  men ;  since  then 
this  number  has  been  increased  to  16,044,  or  more  than  28  times,  and 
all  are  designated  railway  post  office  clerks,  and  thoroughly  educated, 
drilled,  and  disciplined  in  their  occupation. 

The  track  miles  of  routes  has  grown  in  the  same  period  from  22,- 
616  to  217,116,  or  more  than  9^  times. 

The  annual  miles  has  increased  from  23,301,942  to  413,546,195, 
or  more  than  17-|  times. 

The  pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed  from  864,700,000  in  1877, 
to  22,601,925,460,  or  more  than  26  times. 

The  ratio  of  pieces  distributed  correct  to  each  error  known 
increased  from  796  in  1873,  to  3,264  in  1877,  when  the  first  report, 
including  all  classes  of  mail  matter,  was  made,  and  to  12,396,  in  1907; 
more  than  15^  times  between  1873  and  1877,  and  more  than  3|  times 


255 

between  this  later  date  and  1907;  but  during  the  former  period  only 
first-class  matter  was  reported. 

In  case  examinations  the  number  of  cards  per  examination  aver- 
aged 65^  greater  in  1878,  than  in  1908 — but  the  per  cent,  correct  was 
28^  greater  in  1908  than  in  1878 — the  first  year  an  annual  report  was 
made  by  the  General  Superintendent ;  this  must  be  regarded  as  a 
striking  record.  If  the  data  for  the  whole  service  back  to  1873,  were 
available  it  would  be  much  more  so,  probably  the  showing  would 
be  50  per  cent.,  for  it  is  known  that  at  that  date  some  divisions  did 
not  average  50  per  cent,  correct. 

If,  in  considering  the  growth  of  the  service,  the  amount  of  mail 
it  handles  and  distributes,  we  also  consider  the  material  development 
of  the  country,  we  will  realize  that  the  one  has  progressed  in  about 
the  same  ratio  as  the  other ;  that  the  process  of  settlement  and  develop- 
ment of  any  given  territory  always  precedes  the  building  of  cities, 
towns,  villages  and  hamlets,  which  increase  in  population  and  in  trade 
importance  as  the  country  contiguous  to  them  increases  the  yield  of 
the  products  that  are  adapted  to  the  soil. 

These  centers  of  population  are  stations  or  outposts  where  the 
output  of  the  farms,  mines,  ranges,  ranches,  manufactories,  and  for- 
ests are  bought  and  sold  at  remunerative  prices,  and  that  not  needed 
for  home  consumption  shipped  by  rail  or  water  to  the  distributing 
centers  to  supply  the  deficiencies  in  other  territories,  in  this  and  foreign 
countries.  Correspondence  of  whatever  character,  commercial,  profes- 
sional, and  social ;  the  output  of  publication  houses,  including  periodi- 
cals of  all  descriptions,  pass  into  or  through  these  communities  on  the 
way  to  their  destinations.  When  we  realize  the  magnitude  of  this  we 
will  understand  why  our  postal  establishment  has  grown  so  phenom- 
enally in  the  past  forty-five  years,  and  its  methods  of  transacting  busi- 
ness been  so  largely  modified  in  the  interest  of  economy  and  simplicity ; 
especially  will  we  realize  that  the  railway  mail  service  has  dur- 
ing that  time  surpassed  all  other  branches  of  the  postal  service 
in  the  character  and  brilliancy  of  its  work.  Inquiry  will  reveal 
that  this  is  due  to  the  selections  for  appointment  and  for  promotions 
as  prescribed  by  the  civil  service  laws  and  rules  without  any  attempt 
at  evasion ;  to  thorough  discipline,  and  to  the  retention  of  all  employees 
who  have  proved  accomplished  in  the  occupation,  gentlemanly  in  de- 
portment and  morals;  to  the  humane  and  just  treatment  accorded 
them  and  to  which  they  have  responded  with  a  devotion  to  their  work 
that  can  not  be  excelled  in  interest,  efficiency,  industry,  heroism,  sta- 
bility, fidelity  and  "esprit  de  corps."  This  spirit  of  comradeship  and 
regard  for  the  well-being  of  those  with  whom  they  are  so  closely  asso- 


256 

ciated,  and  for  their  families,  is  sublime  and  cannot  be  fostered  too 
assiduously  inside  and  outside  of  the  service.  The  beneficial  associa- 
tions, whose  membership  is  composed  exclusively  of  those  who  are 
and  have  been  employed  as  railway  post  office  clerks,  are  auxiliaries 
of  splendid  worth  to  every  member  of  the  service  whose  name  is  upon 
their  rolls,  because  they  insure  the  widow  and  fatherless  help  in  the 
moments  of  greatest  distress,  and  come  with  cheer  and  comfort  to 
those  maimed  and  broken  in  accidents  while  on  duty ;  they  afiford  them 
social  pleasures  and  intellectual  feasts  in  their  homes,  and  in  national 
and  division  conventions  and  banquets.  They  should  be  endorsed  and 
upheld  by  everyone  in  the  service  and  by  their  friends  outside. 

The  monthly  journals  and  magazines  are  full  of  choice  articles, 
and  well  written  opinions  upon  almost  all  questions  relating  to  the 
advancement  of  the  interests  of  the  men  and  the  service.  They  are 
ably  edited  and  conducted  and  deserve  the  widest  circulation  possible. 

No  one  will  doubt  that  it  nearly  broke  my  heart  to  separate  myself 
from  the  chief  office  of  such  a  thoroughly  organized  and  efficient  ser- 
vice, voluntarily,  when  I  did,  on  account  of  ill  health — as  is  shown 
in  the  following  correspondence : 

"On  November  21,  1871,  Captain  White  was  advanced  to  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Sixth  Division,  which  position  he  held  with  marked 
ability  until  honored  with  the  appointment  of  General  Superintendent 
on  October  4,  1890. 

"It  was  known  recently  that  Captain  White  felt  that  his  health 
made  it  dangerous  for  him  to  continue  the  constant  strain  upon  his 
vitality,  which  added  years  had  reduced.  This  feeling  is  expressed  in 
his  letter  to  the  Postmaster  General  on  January  4th,  which  included 
the  offer  of  his  resignation,  as  follows : 

"  'Dear  Sir:  My  health  having  become  so  seriously  impaired  as 
to  make  it  impossible  for  me  to  perform  the  duties  of  the  office  I  hold 
in  the  railway  mail  service,  with  that  force  and  activity  essential  to  the 
best  management  of  the  service,  and  consequently  to  my  own  satisfac- 
tion, I  deem  it  due  to  the  service,  the  Department  and  myself  that  I 
tender  you  my  resignation  of  the  office  of  General  Superintendent  of 
the  Railway  Mail  Service,  which  I  do  with  great  regret,  and  most 
respectfully  request  that  it  be  accepted  to  take  effect  thirty  days  from 
this  date. 

"  'For  the  consideration  shown  me  I  am  grateful  and  thank  you 
sincerely — indeed,  the  pleasant  greetings  and  the  uniform  kindness  I 
have  always  received  from  the  officers  and  employees  of  the  Depart- 
ment with  whom  I  have  come  in  contact  is  and  will  be  one  of  the  most 
pleasant  recollections  of  my  life.' 


a  n 


257 

'Postmaster  General  Cortelyou  replied  as  follows : 
'My  Dear  Capt.  White:     I  have  received  your  resignation  as 
General  Superintendent  Railway  Mail  Service,  under  date  of  the  4th 
instant,  with  request  that  it  be  accepted  for  reasons  stated,  to  take 
effect  thirty  days  from  date. 

"  'In  accepting  your  resignation,  which  I  do  with  much  regret,  it 
is  proper  to  say  that  the  reasons  you  have  assigned  for  this  voluntary 
action  reflect  credit  upon  you. 

"  'It  gives  me  pleasure  to  speak  in  highest  commendation  of 
your  exceptional  career  in  connection  with  the  one  branch  of  the 
postal  service,  which  is,  perhaps,  more  largely  indebted  to  your  intelli- 
gence and  organizing  ability  for  its  present  efficiency  than  to  the  ser- 
vices of  any  other  one  person.  Entering  the  postal  service  in  1866, 
after  an  honorable  record  of  more  than  four  years  in  the  Civil  War, 
in  which  you  were  severely  wounded,  you  have  passed  through  all  the 
grades  of  the  railway  mail  service  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  with 
an  unblemished  record  and  with  the  result  of  having  mastered  every 
detail  of  the  organization  you  have  presided  over  with  great  ability  as 
General  Superintendent  for  the  past  sixteen  years.  To  have  retained 
the  confidence  of  both  superior  and  subordinate  officials  through  all 
changes  of  administration  for  so  long  a  period  is  evidence  of  executive 
tact  and  wisdom  of  a  high  order,  as  well  as  of  just  and  impartial  ad- 
ministration.' " 

Captain  White's  Administration. 

No.  of  employees  in  1890,  when  he  assumed  charge.  .  .  .  5,836 

No.  of  employees  in  1907,  when  he  retired 14,357 

Increase  during  the  17  years   8,521 

Average  annual  increase  501 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail,  1890,  when  he  assumed 

charge  154,779 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail,  1907,  when  he  retired  207,237 

Increase  during  the  17  years   52,458 

Average   annual   increase    3,086 

Annual   miles   carrying   mail,    1890,    when    he   assumed 

charge   214,715,680 

Annual  miles  carr^nng  mail,  1907,  when  he  retired.  .  .  .  387,557,165 

Increase  during  the  17  years   171,841,485 

Average  annual  increase   10,108,323 

Pieces  of  mail  matter  distributed,  1890,  when  he  assumed 

charge  7,847,723,600 

Errors  in  distribution    2,769,245 


258 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error 2,834 

Pieces  of  mail  distributed,  1907,  when  he  retired 20,483,995,350 

Errors  in  distribution    1,052,409 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error   12,396 

Increase  in  pieces  distributed  during  the  17  years 12,636,271,750 

Average  annual   increase    743,310,103 

Average  annual  decrease  of  errors   65,696 

Average  annual  increase  of  pieces  correct  to  each  error  562 

No.  of  case  examinations^  1890,  when  he  assumed  charge  16,084 

No.  of  cards  handled 17,998,150 

Correctly    handled    16,059,814 

Per  cent,  correct    90.24 

No.  of  case  examinations,  1907,  when  he  retired 37,570 

No.  of  cards  handled   35,610,047 

Correctly  handled   35,162,574 

Per  cent,   correct    98.74 

Increased  per  cent,  correct  in  17  years   8.50 

Annual  increase  correct    .50 

Pieces  of  mail  separated  for  immediate  city  delivery^  by 
carriers,  in  railway  post  offices  from  July  1,  1890, 

to  June  30,  1907    9,581,426,222 

Average  annual  separation  for  city  delivery   563,613,307 

The  number  of  registered  packages,  cases,  post  office  through 
registered  pouches  and  inner  registered  sacks,  railway  post  office  through 
registered  pouches  and  inner  registered  sacks  and  registered  package 
jackets  handled  by  the  railway  mail  service  during  the  seventeen  years 
of  Captain  White's  administration  was  426,831,043;  17,714,501  for 
the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1890,  and  52,578,365  for  the  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30,  1907,  an  average  annual  increase  of  2,050,815. 

Note :  Railw^ay  post  office  through  registered  pouches  and  inner 
registered  sacks  inaugurated  April  1,  1902. 

Registered  package  jackets  inaugurated  December  7,  1903. 

ALEXANDER  GRANT 
succeeded  Captain  White  March  1,  1907.  He  was  appointed  to 
the  service  originally  January  31,  1872,  at  $650  per  annum,  and 
assigned  to  the  line  operating  from  Holly  to  Monroe,  Michigan, 
which  was  later  extended  to  Toledo,  Ohio,  the  salary  increased  to 
$900  per  annum,  and  the  run  was  designated  the  Holly,  Michi- 
gan, and  Toledo,  Ohio,  route  agency.  March  26^  1874,  he  was 
transferred  to  the  Chicago,  111.,  and  Toledo^  Ohio,  railway  post  office, 
with  an  increase  of  salary  to  $1,000  per  annum,  and  September  28th, 


Hon.  Alexander  Grant 

Tenth  C.eiieral  Snperiiitciulcnt  R.  M.  S. 


259 

of  the  same  year,  he  was  promoted  to  class  4,  $1,200  per  annum,  which 
was  reduced  to  $1,150  August  1,  1876,  on  account  of  reduced  appro- 
priations, which  applied  to  all  clerks  of  classes  4  and  5,  $1,200  and 
$1,400  respectively. 

This  occurred  about  the  time  the  first  fast  mail  was  withdrawn, 
though  Mr.  Grant  served  on  it  about  six  months  as  a  clerk  in  charge 
before  that  happened. 

May  11,  1878,  he  was  promoted  to  class  5,  at  $1,300,  and  on  Au- 
gust 30,  1882,  this  was  increased  to  $1,400;  in  the  meantime — January 
1,  1880 — he  was  relieved  of  service  on  the  road  by  detail  to  the  office 
of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Ninth  division,  headquarters  at  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  as  examiner  and  remained  so  assigned  until  October,  1883, 
when  he  was  detailed  to  the  office  of  General  Superintendent  Thomp- 
son, headquarters  Washington,  D.  C. ;  June  1,  1887,  he  resigned  to  take 
efifect  May  31,  1887,  on  which  day  he  was  appointed  an  Assistant  Sup- 
erintendent Railway  Mail  Service  in  the  office  of  General  Superin- 
tendent Nash,  at  $1,600  per  annum. 

On  April  30,  1890,  he  resigned  to  accept  appointment  as  Chief 
Clerk  of  the  railway  mail  service  (Bell,  General  Superintendent)  that 
office  having  just  been  created  by  act  of  Congress  and  a  salary  of 
$2,000  per  annum  attached  to  it.  July  31,  1897,  he  was  promoted  to 
be  Assistant  General  Superintendent  at  $3,000  per  annum,  (White, 
General  Superintendent)  which  was  increased  by  act  of  Congress  of 
March  3,  1903,  to  $3,500,  effective  July  1st,  of  that  year. 

Promoted  to  General  Superintendent  railway  mail  service  March 
1,  1907,  $4,000  per  annum. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Grant's  experience  in  the  service  has  been 
extensive  and  varied,  and  his  training  such  as  to  qualify  him  well,  with 
his  natural  and  acquired  ability,  for  the  office  that  he  holds. 

His  experience  in  the  office  of  the  General  Superintendent  was 
very  valuable ;  he  having  served  with  six  of  those  whO'  were  honored 
with  the  appointment.  All  of  these,  I  believe,  took  him  into  their  con- 
fidence and  trusted  him  fully;  under  these  conditions  he  could  not  fail 
to  garner  in  his  mind  knowledge  of  the  service,  and  methods  of  trans- 
acting business  with  those  without,  as  well  as  within,  the  service.  He 
is  a  student,  an  earnest,  intelligent  worker,  has  good  judgment,  and 
the  best  interests  of  the  splendid  corps  of  employees  in  his  jurisdic- 
tion at  heart,  and  will,  I  am  sure,  work  with  abundant  good  will  to 
secure  for  all  its  members  whatever  benefits  he  believes  them  entitled 
to.  My  opportunities  to  know  him  w-ell  have  been  excellent,  for  he 
was  one  of  "my  boys"  twenty-two  of  the  thirty-five  years  of  his  ser- 


260 

vice  preceding  my  retirement.  He  was  appointed  in  1872  to  a  route 
in  my  division,  then  known  as  the  Fourth,  and  remained  there  until 
the  Ninth  division  was  created  in  the  latter  part  of  1877,  when  he  was 
passed  into  that  division.  When  I  became  General  Superintendent,  in 
October,  1890,  he  was  the  Chief  Clerk  of  the  service  and  he  remained 
with  me  in  that  capacity  and  as  Assistant  General  Superintendent  until 
I  retired  in  1907.  I  had  many  occasions  to  commend  him,  none  to 
reprimand.  As  Assistant  General  Superintendent  he  made  many  in- 
spections of  the  service  while  investigating  cases  requiring  the  atten- 
tion of  my  office,  and  often  action  by  the  Department ;  he  was  my  eyes 
on  such  occasions ;  what  he  found  he  reported  in  clear  and  concise 
language. 

When  I  retired  I  was  satisfied  that  Mr.  Grant  would  succeed  to 
the  office  and  that  his  administration  would  be  successful  I  did  not 
doubt,  for  no  one  realized  as  clearly  as  I  did  that  he  would  be  loyally 
supported  by  thoroughly  trained  Superintendents,  and  by  a  group  of 
bright,  active,  and  faithful  Chief  Clerks,  working  harmoniously  and  in 
full  sympathy  with  the  corps  of  educated  workers  from  which  we  all 
graduated.  The  statement  of  what  has  been  accomplished  during  the 
three  years  just  past  confirms  that  opinion. 

Under  Mr.  Grant's  administration  the  service  has  grown  steadily ; 
there  have  been  no  radical  changes  in  methods  of  administration,  as 
was  to  be  expected  where  the  head  of  the  present  was  so  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  chief  of  the  last  administration,  but  there  have  been 
many  improvements,  the  benefits  of  which  are  noticeable  and  will  in- 
crease with  the  growth  of  the  service.  Among  these  may  be  men- 
tioned a  revision  of  blanks  with  a  view  to  securing  uniformity  through- 
out the  service.  This  is  the  first  general  revision  that  has  been  made 
since  1894,  and  was  indicated  by  the  great  growth  of  the  service  in  the 
interim. 

The  facilities  for  the  transaction  of  the  business  of  the  various 
offices  of  the  service  have  been  improved  by  the  larger  employment  of 
labor  saving  appliances,  such  as  typewriters,  adding  machines,  address- 
ographs,  card  index  systems,  etc.  This  larger  use  prevents  a  more 
rapid  increase  of  clerk  hire,  and  improves  the  character  of  the  work. 

Two  additional  divisions  have  been  created.  The  Twelfth,  with 
headquarters  at  New  Orleans,  Louisiana,  comprises  the  states  of  Mis- 
sissippi and  Louisiana,  with  contiguous  routes  in  Alabama,  Arkansas, 
Tennessee  and  Texas.    H.  M.  Robinson,  Superintendent. 

The  Thirteenth,  with  headquarters  at  Seattle,  Washington,  com- 
prises service  in  Alaska,  Idaho,  Montana,  Oregon  and  Washington. 
Frank  W.  Vaille,  Superintendent. 


261 

Many  additional  Chief  Clerks  have  been  created  by  promotion, 
and  assigned  where  additional  supervision  was  needed ;  this  will  have 
an  excellent  effect,  for  the  service  has  not  within  my  knowledge  had 
as  close  supervision  as  was  necessary  for  its  greatest  usefulness  and 
efficiency. 

The  elimination  of  all  old  and  unsatisfactory  cars  has  been  urged 
with  vigor  and  the  improvement  in  equipment  is  very  noticeable.  A 
great  many  steel  cars  have  been  built  and  a  great  many  with  wooden 
superstructure  and  steel  under-frames.  Arrangements  have  also  been 
made  whereby  cars,  whether  full  R.  P.  O.  cars  or  apartment  cars,  that 
are  reported  to  be  in  bad  condition,  will  be  inspected  by  the  Inspectors 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 

The  benefits  of  Section  1,424,  Postal  Laws  and  Regulations, 
whereby  a  clerk  injured  while  on  duty  will  be  allowed  leave  of  absence 
with  pay  during  the  period  of  disability,  not  exceeding  one  year,  and 
whereby  the  sum  of  $1,000  will  be  paid  to  the  legal  representatives  of 
any  clerk  killed  while  on  duty,  have  been  during  the  past  two  years 
extended  to  substitutes.  This  was  thought  to  be  in  the  line  of  justice 
and  is  of  material  benefit  to  the  seventeen  or  eighteen  hundred  men 
who  are  carried  on  substitute  rolls. 

A  law  has  been  passed  imposing  a  penalty  for  mailing  matter 
liable  to  injure  the  mails  or  the  clerks  or  persons  handling  the  mails. 
This  is  in  the  interest  of  the  men  and  is  a  measure  that  has  been  urged 
by  this  office  for  a  great  many  years. 

The  method  of  handling  registered  matter  has  been  during  the 
past  year  very  much  changed  and  simplified.  The  introduction  of  the 
package  jackets  and  sack  jackets  has  expedited  very  much  the  handling 
of  this  valuable  class  of  matter  and  with  the  minimum  amount  of 
labor.  The  work  of  handling  registered  matter  has  been  very  much 
reduced  as  a  whole,  although  it  is  not  felt  so  much  in  the  railway  mail 
service  as  in  the  larger  post  offices  where  the  bulk  of  the  mail  was 
formerly  rehandled  in  transit,  whereas  now  that  work  is  almost  en- 
tirely done  by  the  railway  mail  service,  either  by  making  up  jackets, 
sacks  and  pouches  in  the  postal  cars  or  by  the  establishment  of  regis- 
try terminals. 

At  the  request  of  the  First  Assistant  Postmaster  General  the  rail- 
way mail  service  has,  where  practicable,  assumed  the  duty  of  examin- 
ing clerks  in  the  mailing  divisions  of  all  first  and  second-class  post- 
offices.  While  this  imposes  additional  labor  upon  the  railway  mail 
service  such  work  already  has  resulted  in  improvement  of  the  service, 
and  this  will  continue  to  grow. 


262 

To  avoid  the  heavy  transfer  of  mail  at  Chicago,  arrangements 
have  been  made  whereby  storage  cars  will  be  passed  from  one  depot  to 
another,  thereby  avoiding  the  transfer  of  the  same  from  depot  to 
depot  by  wagon. 

The  increase  in  force  has  been  about  2,390,  or  16.25  per  cent. 
Commencing  July  1,  1907,  the  salaries  of  all  clerks  in  the  service  who 
were  receiving  over  $300  per  annum  were  increased  $100.  The  sala- 
ries of  all  Assistant  Superintendents  and  Chief  Clerks  were  increased 
$200.  Those  who  had  been  receiving  $1,800  were  raised  to  $2,000, 
and  those  receiving  $1,600  to  $1,800.  Commencing  July  1,  1909,  the 
clerks  in  charge  of  apartment  runs  on  lines  having  no  full  R.  P.  O. 
service  were  increased  $100,  thereby  putting  those  men  on  a  parity 
with  the  men  in  charge  of  apartment  car  runs  on  full  R.  P.  O.  lines. 

In  the  matter  of  expediting  schedules  there  has  been  a  very  ma- 
terial improvement  between  St.  Paul  and  Seattle.  The  Great  Northern 
in  October,  1900,  placed  in  service  a  special  mail  train  covering  the 
distance  from  St.  Paul  to  Seattle  in  forty-eight  hours.  This  was  a 
gain  of  about  twelve  hours.  The  Santa  Fe  and  Rock  Island-Southern 
Pacific  Companies  commencing  February  20,  1910,  shortened  the  time 
between  Kansas  City  and  Los  Angeles  of  trains  leaving  Kansas  City 
in  the  morning  about  three  hours,  so  that  they  arrive  at  2  :30  and  3  '.30 
p.  m.,  instead  of  6  :00  and  6  :55  p.  m.,  as  formerly.  The  Rock  Island- 
Southern  Pacific  train  leaving  Kansas  City  at  night  was  also  expedited 
so  as  to  arrive  at  Los  Angeles  at  7  :35  in  the  morning  instead  of  1 :30 
p.  m.,  as  formerly.  The  time  of  Overland  train  9,  leaving  Omaha  at 
9  :30  a.  m.,  is  shortened  so  as  to  arrive  at  San  Francisco  at  10  :08  a. 
m.,  instead  of  1 :08  p.  m.,  as  formerly.  The  fast  Overland  Mail  on 
the  Union  Pacific  has  been  divided  into  two  sections — one  for  San 
Francisco  and  one  for  Portland,  Oregon.  The  time  between  U.  P. 
Transfer  and  Portland  has  been  expedited  about  twelve  hours,  the 
connection  leaving  Omaha  at  9  :30  a.  m.  now  arriving  at  Portland  at 
7  :00  a.  m.,  as  against  6  :30  p.  m.  New  twenty- four  hour  trains  be- 
tween New  York  and  St.  Louis  were  placed  in  service  by  both  the 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York  Central  lines  in  November,  1909.  These 
trains,  like  the  eighteen  hour  trains  for  Chicago,  are  utilized  for  first- 
class  matter  only.  The  New  York  Central  leaves  New  York  at  2  :45 
p.  m.  and  arrives  at  St.  Louis  at  1 :45  p.  m.  the  next  day.  This  is  a 
gain  of  about  five  hours.  The  Pennsylvania  fast  train  leaves  New 
York  at  6  :30  p.  m.  and  arrives  at  St.  Louis  at  5  :25  p.  m.  the  next  day. 
This  is  a  gain  of  about  four  and  a  half  hours  and  expedites  all  first- 
class  matter  for  a  very  wide  scope  of  coimtry.  There  are  correspond- 
ing fast  trains  with  corresponding  advantages  in  expedition  east  bound. 


2G3 

The  agitation  of  the  clerks  for  a  travel  allowance  has  continued 
and  public  sentiment  and  the  sentiment  in  Congress  in  favor  of  the 
proposition  has  been  steadily  growing  and  is  recognized  as  just  and 
desirable  by  Mr.  Grant,  in  fact,  the  bill  making  appropriation  for  next 
year  now  pending  in  Congress  provides  an  appropriation  of  $250,000 
for  the  traveling  expenses  of  clerks,  to  be  disbursed  in  the  discretion 
of  the  Postmaster  General.  This  of  course  will  not  enable  the  Post 
Office  Department  to  pay  the  expense  of  all  clerks  who  are  away  from 
home  on  their  runs,  but  it  is  a  recognition  of  their  right  to  reimburse- 
ment and  will  undoubtedly  lead  to  full  payment  of  such  expenses  some 
time  in  the  future. 

The  Civil  Service  Retirement  idea  is  also  growing  very  rapidly, 
and  the  endorsement  of  the  idea  by  the  President  and  several  of  the 
Cabinet  officials  has  placed  it  in  a  much  more  favorable  light.  This 
is  an  idea  that  has  been  urged  by  this  office  for  a  great  many  years  and 
Mr.  Grant  informs  me  in  a  recent  letter  that  he  is  happy  to  state  that 
the  prospects  for  some  legislative  action  in  that  line  are  much  more 
favorable  than  they  ever  have  been  before,  and  I  am  very  much  pleased 
to  hear  it. 

The  statistical  record  made  by  the  service  up  to  the  present  date, 
June  30,  1909,  of  Mr.  Grant's  administration  is: 

Number  of  employees  in  1907,  when  he  assumed  charge  14,357 

Number  of  employees  on  June  30,  1909   16,044 

Increase  during  the  two  years  1,687 

Average   annual   increase    843 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail,  1907,  when  he  assumed 

charge  207,237 

Miles  of  railroad  carrying  mail  on  June  30,  1909 217,116 

Increase  during  the  two  years    9,879 

Average  annual   increase 4,939 

Annual   miles   carrying   mail,    1907,    when    he    assumed 

charge    387,557,165 

Annual  miles  carrying  mail  on  June  30,  1909 413,546,195 

Increase  during  the  two  years    25,989,030 

Average  annual   increase    12,994,515 

Pieces  of   mail   matter   distributed,    1907,   when   he   as- 
sumed charge    20,483,995,350 

Errors  in  distribution    1,652,409 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error    12,396 

Pieces    of    mail    matter    distributed    during    fiscal    year 

1909    22,601,925,430 


364 

Errors  in  distribution   2,156,327 

Pieces  correct  to  each  error 10,483 

Increase  in  pieces  distributed  during  the  two  years.  . .  .    2,117,930,080 

Average  annual  increase   1,058,965,040 

Average  annual  increase  of  errors   251,909 

Average  annual  decrease  of  pieces  correct  to  each  error  957 

Number  of  case  examinations,  1907,  when  he  assumed 

charge    37,570 

Number  of  cards  handled 35,610,047 

Correctly  handled 35,162,574 

Per  cent,  correct 98.74 

Number  of  case  examinations  during  fiscal  year  1909.  .  42,507 

Number  of  cards  handled   38,849,115 

Correctly  handled 38,415,308 

Per  cent,   correct    98.88 

Increased  per  cent,  correct  in  two  years .14 

Annual  increase  correct   .07 

Pieces  of  mail  separated  for  immediate  city  delivery  in 
railway  post  offices  from  July  1,  1907,  to  June  30, 

1909 2,139,221,650 

(Being  1,006,882,940  for  the  fiscal  year  1908  and 
1,132,338,710  for  the  fiscal  year  1909). 
Average  annual  separation  for  city  delivery  for  the  two 

years    1,069,610,835 

The  number  of  registered  packages,  cases,  post  office  through  regis- 
tered pouches  and  inner  registered  sacks,  railway  post  office  through 
registered  pouches  and  inner  registered  sacks,  registered  package  jack- 
ets and  lead  seal  sack  jackets  handled  by  the  railway  mail  service  for 
the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1907,  was  52,578,365,  and  from  July  1, 
1907,  to  June  30,  1909,  during  Mr.  Grant's  administration,  120,816,- 
491,  being  57,416,566  for  the  fiscal  year  1908  and  63,399,925  for  the 
fiscal  year  1909  ;  an  average  annual  increase  of  5,410,780. 

Note :    Lead  seal  jackets  inaugurated  March  25,  1909. 


265 


CONCLUSION. 

The  uniform  kindness  and  hearty  support  received  from  the  faith- 
ful employees  of  the  railway  mail  service  during  all  the  years  I  was 
connected  with  it,  in  supervisory  capacities,  made  whatever  success  I 
achieved  possible ;  without  the  earnest  help  of  the  whole  corps,  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest,  coupled  with  the  loyal  determination  to 
build  up  the  service,  such  results  as  were  achieved  could  not  have 
been  obtained,  and  it  is  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  me  in  these  days 
to  observe  that  my  successor,  and  the  old  and  new  men  back  of  him, 
are  continuing  the  development,  and  harmonizing  all  parts  of  it  in 
conformity  with  the  laws  of  growth  and  the  equities  of  justice. 

If  an  officer  knows  that  he  has  the  loyal  and  affectionate  regard 
of  those  whom  he  has  been  selected  to  command,  and  from  among 
whom  he  rose  by  the  blessings  of  Heaven,  the  faithfulness  and  in- 
tellectual ability  of  his  comrades,  and  his  own  strenuous  labor — physical 
and  mental — he  will  continue  the  work  with  a  cheerful  spirit,  and  more 
determinedly  than  would  be  possible  under  less  favorable  conditions. 

The  belief  that  such  an  atmosphere  surrounded  me  many  times 
in  the  years  that  are  gone,  acted  as  a  balm  to  a  weary  mind  dwelling 
in  an  earthly  tabernacle,  battered  and  worn  by  nearly  half  a  century's 
activity  in  the  military  and  civil  service  of  our  very  uncommon  country. 

Remembering  this  I  pray  you  one  and  all  to  stand  by  your  superior 
officers — and  all  have  them — and  the  government,  to  the  end  that 
their  work,  and  yours,  may  be  thoroughly  accomplished,  and  enjoyed 
as  a  symphony  is  by  lovers  of  music. 


267 


APPENDIX. 


Biographical  Sketches  of  the  Present  Superintendents  R.  M.  S. 


Edward  J.  Ryan. 

Born  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  May  4,  1850.  Educated  in  public 
schools  of  Chicago  and  Galesburg,  Illinois;  Worcester  and  Millbury, 
Massachusetts.  Served  in  the  Civil  War  from  May  to  August,  1804, 
as  drummer  boy,  10th  Regiment,  Massachusetts  Infantry,  being  then 
aged  14  years.  Entered  the  railway  mail  service  August  13,  1868,  as 
a  clerk  in  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railway  Post  Office  at  $1,200  per 
annum.  June  2,  1869,  promoted  to  head  clerk  same  R.  P.  O.,  at  $1,400 
per  annum.  September  11,  1876,  pay  reduced  to  $1,300,  account  re- 
duced appropriation,  effective  August  1,  1876.  May  8,  1877,  trans- 
ferred to  local  agency,  Boston,  Mass.  September  3,  1877,  transferred 
back  to  the  Boston  and  Albany  R.  P.  O.  May  17,  1878,  promoted  to 
$1,400,  effective  June  1,  1878.  May  8,  1881,  resigned,  to  take  effect 
February  17,  1881.  November  10,  1883,  reappointed,  Boston,  Spring- 
field and  New  York  R.  P.  O.,  at  $1,400  per  annum  (detailed).  July 
24,  1888,  resigned,  to  take  effect  August  16,  1888.  December  14,  1888, 
reappointed  Boston  and  Albany  R.  P.  O.,  $1,300.  January  22,  1889, 
transferred  to  Boston,  Springfield  and  New  York  Railway  Post  Office 
and  promoted  to  $1,400  per  annum  (detailed).  March  2,  1889,  re- 
signed, and  appointed  Assistant  Superintendent  at  $1,600  per  annum, 
same  day.  June  10,  1890,  appointed  Superintendent  R.  M.  S.,  First 
division,  $2,500  per  annum,  which  was  increased  to  $2,700  per  annum, 
by  Act  of  Congress,  July  1,  1901,  and  to  $3,000,  by  Act  of  Congress, 
July  1,  1903. 

Victor  J.  Bradley. 

Born  in  New  York  City,  June  18,  1858.  Educated  in  public 
schools.  New  York  City,  and  afterwards  in  private  academy,  obtaining 
a  general  classical  education.  Entered  the  railway  mail  service  in  a 
temporary  position  in  vSeptember,  1875,  and  became  an  assistant  clerk 
of  the  Albany  and  New  York  R.  P.  O.,  effective  November  1.  1875. 
During  1878  was  appointed  in  charge  of  the  divisional  weighings,  and 
on  August  23,  1878,  was  appointed  an  assistant  clerk  of  the  New  York 


368 

and  Washington  R.  P.  O.  Subsequently  promoted  as  follows :  To 
clerk,  November  23,  1878;  head  clerk,  June  30,  1880;  chief  clerk, 
December  30,  1884;  Assistant  Superintendent,  January  17,  1889,  in 
which  position  he  served  until  February  2,  1895,  when  he  was  ap- 
pointed Superintendent  of  Station  H,  New  York  City,  which  needed 
reorganization,  especially  in  the  distribution  division.  This  work  be- 
ing finished  he  returned  to  the  railway  mail  service,  January  20,  1896, 
as  Assistant  Superintendent,  and  was  promoted  to  Superintendent  of 
the  Second  division,  headquarters  New  York  City,  effective  January 
27,  1896,  salary  $2,500  per  annum,  which  was  increased  by  Act  of 
Congress  to  $2,700,  July  1,  1901,  and  to  $3,000,  July  1,  1903.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  routine  work  of  his  position,  Mr..  Bradley,  like  other  super- 
intendents, has  served  on  many  departmental  commissions  for  the 
investigation  of  special  postal  problems,  and  was  of  special  service  to 
the  commission  appointed  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  and  the 
House  of  Representatives  in  1898-1899,  to  investigate  and  report  upon 
the  railway  mail  service  of  Canada,  and  the  general  postal  service  in 
England,  France  and  Germany. 

Charles  W.  Vickery. 

Born  in  Unity,  Maine,  March  22,  1840.  Educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Boston,  Mass.,  and  in  the  high  schools.  Served  in  the 
Sturgis  Rifles  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  from  May,  1861,  to  November, 
1863,  during  the  Civil  War.  Entered  the  railway  mail  service  March 
13,  1867,  in  the  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  R.  P.  O.,  at  $1,000  per  annum ; 
promoted  to  head  clerk,  salary  $1,400  per  annum,  July  1,  1870 ;  trans- 
ferred to  the  Chicago  and  Iowa  City  R.  P.  O.,  January  31,  1877,  at 
same  class  and  pay.  Resigned  August  10,  1880,  to  accept  appointment 
as  Assistant  Superintendent  R.  M.  S.,  at  $1,500  per  annum;  promoted 
to  Superintendent  Third  division,  headquarters  Washington,  D.  C, 
November  16,  1881,  at  $2,500  per  annum,  which  has  been  increased 
twice  by  Act  of  Congress,  viz:  July  1,  1901,  to  $2,700,  and  July  1, 
1903,  to  $3,000.  He  served  part  of  the  time  during  his  original  ap- 
pointment as  Superintendent,  in  charge  of  the  Fourth  division,  head- 
quarters Atlanta,  Georgia.  Resigned  November  25,  1888 ;  reappointed 
as  Superintendent  of  the  Third  division  March  26,  1889.  Mr.  Vick- 
ery's  trend  of  mind  is  strongly  mechanical,  which  has  increased  his 
usefulness  to  the  service,  especially  in  the  matter  of  car  building. 

Lynch  M.  Terrell. 

Immediately  upon  the  first  call  to  arms  by  President  Lincoln, 
which  occurred  April  15,  1861,  Mr.  Terrell  enlisted  at  Vincennes,  Indi- 


269 

ana,  in  a  company  called  the  "Old  Post  Guards,"  and  with  it  reported 
at  Camp  Morton,  near  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  April  30,  18(51,  and  was 
mustered  into  service  as  First  Lieutenant,  Company  B.,  14th  Indiana 
Volunteer  Infantry ;  performed  service  during  the  West  Virginia  cam- 
paign under  General  McClellan,  when  he  resigned  on  account  of  long 
continued  poor  health.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Loyal  Legion  and  of 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  Entered  the  railway  mail  service 
December  8,  18G9,  as  a  clerk  in  the  Louisville  and  Nashville  R.  V.  O. 
In  1870  he  was  promoted  to  head  clerk  or  clerk  in  charge;  in  1871  he 
was  detailed  as  chief  clerk  at  Louisville,  Ky.  In  June,  1871,  was  ap- 
pointed a  special  agent  of  the  Post  Office  Department  and  assigned  to 
Texas,  with  headquarters  at  Marshall ;  afterwards  changed  to  Dallas. 
This  was  before  there  were  any  railroads  at  Dallas,  and  Fort  Worth 
was  unknown.  In  1873  he  was  transferred  to  Nashville,  Tenn.,  and 
assigned  as  assistant  to  C.  Jay  French,  who  was  then  Superintendent 
of  the  Third  division,  which  comprised  the  railway  mail  service  south 
of  the  Ohio  and  west  of  the  Potomac  rivers,  including  Texas.  When 
three  new  divisions  were  created  in  October,  1874,  and  the  territory 
embraced  in  the  original  divisions  was  reapportioned,  Mr.  Terrell 
was  appointed  Superintendent  of  the  new  Fourth,  which  comprised 
the  states  of  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  North 
Carolina  and  South  Carolina,  with  headquarters  at  Chattanooga,  Tenn., 
which  were  changed  to  Atlanta,  Georgia,  in  1870.  In  September,  1883, 
he  was  transferred  to  the  Third  division  and  in  1884  he  was  returned 
to  the  Fourth  division  at  his  own  request.  April  1,  1887,  he  resigned 
and  on  April  1,  1889,  he  was  reappointed  to  his  former  position, 
which  he  still  occupies.  He  is  the  senior  Superintendent ;  always  faith- 
ful, loyal  and  just  to  his  superiors  and  subordinates ;  modest,  tender- 
hearted, but  a  thorough  disciplinarian. 

Charlh;s  Rager. 

Born  in  New  Brighton,  Penna.,  February  2,  1861.  Educated  in 
the  public  schools  of  his  native  town.  Entered  the  railway  mail  ser- 
vice March  17,  1881,  in  the  Pittsburg  and  Chicago  R.  P.  O.,  salary 
$900  per  annum;  promoted  to  class  4,  at  $1,150,  November  21,  1881 ; 
promoted  to  class  5,  clerk  in  charge,  at  $1,300  per  annum,  September 
17,  1883.  Removed  December  9.  1887.  Reappointed  to  the  Pitts- 
burg and  Chicago  R.  P.  O.,  April  29,  1889,  salary  $L000  per  annum; 
promoted  to  class  4,  $1,150  per  annum,  June  24,  1889;  promoted  to 
class  5,  clerk  in  charge,  salary  $1,300.  April  12,  1890.  Transferred  to 
the  Pittsburg  and  Cincinnati  R.  P.  O.,  July  7,  1892,  and  salary  in- 
creased to  $1,400  per  annum ;  detailed  as  chief  clerk  R.  M.  S.,  Septem- 


270 

ber  15,  189-2.  Appointed  Assistant  Superintendent  R.  M.  S.,  $1,600, 
July  31,  1897 ;  promoted  to  Assistant  Division  Superintendent,  at 
$1,800  per  annum,  November  17,  1904.  Promoted  to  Superintendent 
of  the  Fifth  division  November  25,  1905,  at  $3,000  per  annum.  In 
the  number  of  employees  and  the  amount  of  mail  handled  this  is  the 
largest  division  in  the  service,  and  it  has  made  excellent  records. 

E.  L.  West. 

Entered  the  railway  mail  service  in  the  Chicago  and  Centralia 
R.  P.  O.,  March  24,  1880,  at  $900  per  annum;  transferred  to  the 
LaFayette  and  St.  Louis  R.  P.  O.,  same  class  and  pay,  December  G, 
1880.  Transferred  to  the  Chicago  and  Effiingham  R.  P.  O.,  February 
7,  1881,  and  promoted  to  class  4,  at  $1,150  per  annum.  Transferred 
to  the  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  R.  P.  O.,  same  class  and  pay,  June  21, 
1881 ;  transferred  to  the  Springfield  and  Oilman,  Illinois,  R.  P.  O., 
October  29,  1881,  and  salary  reduced  to  $900  per  annum;  transferred 
to  the  Chicago  and  Centralia  R.  P.  O.,  December  7,  1882,  and  pro- 
moted to  class  4.  $1,150  per  annum.  On  April  27,  1885,  was  pro- 
moted to  class  5,  clerk  in  charge,  and  salary  increased  to  $1,300  per 
annum ;  the  line  was  afterward  designated  the  Chicago  and  Cairo 
R.  P.  O.  Resigned  and  appointed  a  Post  Office  Inspector,  August 
21,  1889,  salary  $1,200  per  annum;  reappointed  March  8,  1890,  and 
salary  increased  to  $1,(500  per  annum.  Resigned  November  16,  1890, 
to  accept  transfer  to  the  railway  mail  service  as  an  assistant  superin- 
tendent, without  change  of  pay.  Promoted  to  Superintendent  of 
Sixth  division  November  18,  1899,  salary  $2,500  per  annum,  which 
has  been  increased  twice  by  Acts  of  Congress — July  1,  1901,  to  $2,700 
per  annum,  and  July  1,  1903,  to  $3,000  per  annum.  This  is  the  sec- 
ond largest  division  of  the  sei-vice ;  its  record  is  first-class,  and  in  It 
the  "railway  post  office"  was  born. 

Still.  P.  Taft. 

Born  in  East  Montpelier,  V^ermont,  September  29,  1843.  Edu- 
cated in  the  public  and  normal  schools  of  Oskaloosa,  Iowa.  Moved 
to  Colorado  in  1862.  His  first  connection  with  the  service  was  as  a 
mail  weigher  on  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern  Railway, 
November  15,  1876.  When  the  weighing  between  Buffalo  and  Chi- 
cago ceased  he  was  ordered  to  report  to  the  superintendent  at  New 
York  City,  for  assignment  as  "Supervisor  of  Weights"  for  the  Second 
division;  he  remained  in  that  assignment  until  about  September  1, 
1877.     On  the  30th  of  that  month  he  reported  to  the  Superintendent 


271 

R.  M.  S.  at  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  by  direction  of  the  General  Superintendent, 
and  was  assigned  as  "Supervisor  of  the  Weighing  of  Mails"  for  the 
Seventh  division.  He  remained  in  this  assignment  until  January  10, 
1883,  when  he  received  a  regular  appointment  in  the  railway  mail  ser- 
vice as  a  clerk  of  class  5,  $1,300  per  annum,  in  the  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  and 
Atchison,  Kansas,  R.  P.  O.  December  6,  1884,  the  salary  was  in- 
creased to  $1,400.  Resigned  December  27,  1890,  to  assume  the  posi- 
tion of  "Supervisor  of  Weighings"  again,  for  the  Seventh  division. 
On  July  1,  1891,  he  was  reappointed  to  the  R.  M.  S. ;  restored  as  a 
railway  post  office  clerk,  class  5,  $1,400  per  annum — the  weighing 
having  ceased.  Resigned  April  22,  1893,  to  accept  appointment  as 
Assistant  Superintendent  Seventh  division,  salary  $l,fi00  per  annum. 
Promoted  to  Superintendent  Seventh  division  September  1,  1899, 
salary  $2,500  per  annum,  which  has  been  increased  twice  since  by  Act 
of  Congress— July  1,  1901,  to  $2,700.  and  July  1.  1903,  to  $3,000  per 
annum. 

A.  H.  Ste;phens. 

Entered  the  railway  mail  service  as  a  clerk  of  class  1.  at  $800 
per  annum,  in  the  Ogden  and  San  Francisco  R.  P.  O.  January  Ifi, 
1894;  promoted  to  class  2,  in  the  same  R.  P.  O.,  at  $900  per  annum, 
February  12,  1894 ;  promoted  to  class  3,  at  $1,000  per  annum,  March 
10,  1898;  promoted  to  class  4,  same  R.  P.  O.,  $1,200  per  annum,  May 
24,  1899;  promoted  to  class  5,  same  R.  P.  O.,  $1,300  per  annum.  April 
2,  1900;  increased  to  $1,400  June  19,  1900,  and  detailed  as  chief  clerk; 
increased  to  $1,000  July  2,  1900.  Promoted  to  Assistant  Division 
Superintendent  Eighth  division,  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  January  K',  1901. 
at  $1,800  per  annum.  Promoted  to  Superintendent  Eighth  division, 
headquarters  San  Francisco,  Cal.  at  $3,000  per  atnium.  November 
20,  1904. 

George  W.  Pepper. 

Bom  in  Belfast,  Ireland,  October  22,  1852.  Came  to  the  United 
States  with  his  parents  two  years  later,  and  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Ohio.  Entered  the  railway  mail  service  in  the  Buffalo  and 
Toledo  R.  P.  O.,  at  $1,000  per  annum,  June  12,  1872;  promoted  to 
class  4,  at  $1,200  per  annum,  April  5,  1873 ;  promoted  to  class  5,  at 
$1,400  per  annum,  January  25,  1875;  reduced  to  $1,300  per  annum, 
in  the  same  R.  P.  O.,  August  2,  1876.  Transferred  and  assigned  to 
the  middle  division  of  the  New  York  and  Chicago  R.  P.  O.,  August 
1,  1882,  account  consolidation  of  the  lines.  Resigned  April  2.  1889. 
Appointed  Superintendent  of  the  Ninth  division,  at  $2,500  per  annum, 
March  26,  1889,  to  take  effect  when  he  shall  have  executed  the  oath 


272 

of  office.  Salary  increased  to  $2,700  per  annum  July  1,  1901,  in  ac- 
cordance with  Act  of  Congress,  and  to  $3,000  per  annum  July  1,  1903, 
in  accordance  with  Act  of  Congress  of  March  3,  1903.  Mr.  Pepper 
is  modest  and  active,  a  good  and  retiring  officer.  Had  charge  of  one 
of  the  cars,  equipped  with  a  crew  from  the  Ninth  division,  which  com- 
posed the  gold  train^  San  Francisco  to  New  York. 

Norman  Perkins. 

Born  in  Lackawack,  New  York,  and  educated  in  the  public  schools 
of  that  place  and  in  the  seminary  at  Charlotteville,  Schoharie  County, 
N.  Y.  On  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  Mr.  Perkins  enlisted  as  a 
private  in  the  56th  Regiment,  New  York  Infantry.  He  was  promoted 
during  his  service  to  corporal,  color  sergeant  (carried  the  regimental 
colors  from  June,  18G2,  to  June,  1863),  first  sergeant.  Reenlisted  in 
February,  1864.  Promoted  to  second  lieutenant,  first  lieutenant,  and 
captain ;  was  wounded  and  was  honorably  discharged  in  October,  1865. 
Participated  in  the  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina  campaigns,  in 
the  siege  of  Morris  Island  and  Sumter,  and  was  in  many  engage- 
ments. Is  a  member  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  and  of  the 
Loyal  Legion.  Mr.  Perkins  entered  the  railway  mail  service  in  the 
La  Crosse  and  Winnebago  City,  Minn.,  line,  as  a  route  agent,  at  $900 
per  annum,  August  24,  1871.  Salary  increased  to  $940  per  annum 
August,  1876.  Transferred  to  the  Chicago,  111.,  and  Sparta,  Wis.,  R. 
P.  O.,  at  class  4,  $1,150  per  annum,  February,  1877 ;  promoted  to  class 
5,  clerk  in  charge,  at  $1,300  per  annum,  July,  1879;  pay  increased  to 
$1,400,  April,  1884,  and  detailed  as  chief  clerk  at  St.  Paul,  Minn. 
Resigned  to  accept  appointment  as  Superintendent  Tenth  division, 
April  1,  1889.  Had  charge  of  one  of  the  cars,  equipped  with  a  crew 
from  the  Tenth  division,  which  composed  the  gold  train  of  1892,  San 
Francisco  to  New  York.  Removed  June  19,  1893,  and  reappointed  as 
Superintendent,  June  26,  1897. 

S.  M.  Gaines. 

Born  in  Madisonville,  Tennessee,  June  22,  1859  ;  was  educated  in 
the  public  schools  of  that  place  and  in  the  Madisonville  Academy.  En- 
tered the  railway  mail  service  at  class  1,  $880  per  annum,  in  the  Corpus 
Christi  and  Laredo  R.  P.  O.,  March  20,  1882;  transferred  to  the 
Palestine  and  Laredo  R.  P.  O.,  at  $900,  June  26,  1882;  permanently 
appointed  at  class  3,  $1,000  per  annum,  September  11,  1882.  Trans- 
ferred to  the  St.  Louis  and  Texarkana  R.  P.  O.,  at  class  5,  $1,300  per 
annum,  May  13,  1889,  and  served  in  the  office  of  the  Superintendent 


273 

of  the  Eleventh  division,  by  detail  from  the  Palestine  and  Laredo,  and 
from  the  St.  Louis  and  Texarkana,  until  April  11,  1893,  when  he  was 
promoted  to  Assistant  Superintendent  R.  M.  S.,  $1,G00  per  annum  ; 
November  2G,  1897,  he  was  appointed  Superintendent  of  the  Eleventh 
division,  headquarters  Fort  Worth,  Texas,  at  $2,500  per  annum.  Pay 
increased  by  Act  of  Congress,  to  $2,700,  July  1,  1901,  and  to  $3,000,  by 
Act  of  Congress,  July  1^  1903.  Mr.  Gaines  has  served  on  several 
committees  appointed  to  consider  and  inspect  mail  equipment,  such  as 
lock  pouches,  cranes  and  catchers,  tying  devices,  and  interior  arrange- 
ments of  cars,  and  served  well. 

H.  M.  Robinson. 

Born  in  Weard  County,  Georgia,  August  25,  1858,  and  educated 
in  the  public  schools.  He  entered  the  railway  mail  service  as  a  clerk 
of  class  2,  at  $900  per  annum,  in  the  Charlotte  and  Atlanta  R.  P.  O., 
May  28,  1879 ;  promoted  to  class  4,  $1,150  per  annum,  July  7,  1880 ; 
reduced  to  class  3,  at  $1,000  per  annum.  May  18,  1881 ;  promoted  to 
class  4,  $1,150  per  annum,  August  30,  1881 ;  promoted  to  class  5,  $1,300 
per  annum,  August  27,  1882 ;  reduced  to  class  4,  $1,150  per  annum, 
January  20,  1883 ;  promoted  to  class  5,  $1,300,  August  1,  1883.  Made 
chief  clerk  October  10,  1891,  and  pay  increased  to  $1,400  per  annum. 
November  23,  1898,  promoted  to  Assistant  Superintendent  R.  M.  S., 
$1,()00  per  annum,  and  assigned  to  duty  in  Porto  Rico.  July  18,  1899, 
reinstated,  at  $1,600,  as  chief  clerk  R.  M.  S.,  Fourth  division.  August 
3,  1900,  resigned,  to  take  efifect  July  31,  1900.  August  1,  1900,  ap- 
pointed special  agent  and  Assistant  Superintendent  R.  M.  S.,  $1,600, 
and  assigned  to  China.  December  21,  1903,  resignation  accepted, 
effective  December  19,  1903,  and  restored  to  his  old  place  in  the  Fourth 
division,  R.  M.  S.  May  18,  1904,  appointed  Assistant  Division  Super- 
intendent, $1,600  per  annum.  Fourth  division.  November  11,  1908, 
appointed  Superintendent  Twelfth  division,  R.  M.  S.,  (new),  $3,000 
per  annum,  headquarters.  New  Orleans,  La.  See  the  Spanish-Ameri- 
can War. 

Frank  W.  VaillE. 

Born  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  on  the  7th  day  of  December.  1854. 
Educated  in  the  public  schools  of  that  city  and  in  Yale,  from  which  he 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1876.  Entered  the  railway  mail  service  as 
local  agent  at  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  September  4,  1877,  class  1,  $600  per  an- 
num. Appointment  expired  March  4,  1878.  Reappointed  February 
28,  1878,  salary  $600.  May  10,  1878,  transferred  to  Pittsburg  and  St. 
Louis  R.  P.  O.,  class  3,  $L000  per  annum.    July  8,  1879,  promoted  to 


274 

class  5,  $1,300  per  annum.  April  1,  18(S2,  promoted  to  chief  clerk  R. 
M.  S.,  at  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  and  salary  increased  to  $1,400  per  annum. 
July  2,  1885,  transferred  to  the  Green  River,  Wyo.,  and  Huntington, 
Oregon,  R.  P.  O.,  at  class  3,  $1,000  per  annum — this  was  made  on  his 
own  request.  July  29,  1886,  transferred  to  the  Omaha  and  Ogden  R. 
P.  O.,  at  class  4,  $1,150  per  annum.  December,  1886,  promoted  to 
class  5,  at  $1,300  per  annum.  May  25,  1889,  transferred  to  the  Chi- 
cago and  Cincinnati  R.  P.  O.,  class  5,  $1,300  per  annum.  August  7, 
1889,  promoted  to  $1,400  per  annum.  December  17,  1890,  resigned, 
and  was  appointed  Assistant  Superintendent  R.  M.  S.,  and  assigned 
later  to  the  northwestern  portion  of  the  Eighth  division,  where  he  did 
excellent  work  until  detailed  June  6, 1898,  to  go  to  the  Philippine  Islands 
to  assume  charge  of  the  mail  passing  to  and  from  our  army  and  to  and 
from  the  citizens  thereof.  October  31,  1900,  resigned  as  Assistant 
Superintendent  R.  M.  S.,  and  made  Director  of  Posts  of  the  Philip- 
pines. Reinstated  as  Assistant  Superintendent  R.  M.  S.,  after  service 
in  the  Philippines,  with  headquarters  at  Portland,  Oregon,  March  7, 
1901.  July  1,  1904,  pay  increased  by  Act  of  Congress  to  $1,800  per 
annum.  July  1,  1907,  pay  increased  by  Act  of  Congress  to  $2,000  per 
annum.  July  1,  1909,  appointed  Superintendent  Thirteenth  division, 
R.  M.  S.  (new),  headquarters,  Seattle,  Washington,  salary  $3,000  per 
annum.  Had  charge  of  one  of  the  cars  of  the  gold  train  from  San 
Francisco,  Cal.,  to  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 


John  W.  HoIvLyday. 

John  W.  Hollyday,  Chief  Clerk  to  the  Second  Assistant  Post- 
master General,  was  born  and  educated  in  Findlay,  Ohio.  In  March, 
1878,  he  was  appointed  in  the  railway  mail  service,  serving  on  the  New 
York  Central  and  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern  lines.  He  was 
detailed  to  duty  in  the  office  of  the  Superintendent,  Ninth  division, 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  for  two  years,  1881-1883,  and  then  promoted  to 
clerk  in  charge  of  one  of  the  heaviest  runs  between  Cleveland  and 
Chicago,  where  he  served  until  1885,  when  he  was  transferred  to  the 
ofifice  of  the  General  Superintendent  Railway  Mail  Service  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  He  filled  various  positions  therein  and  was  made  chief 
clerk  in  August,  1897.  March  1,  1907,  he  was  promoted  to  his  present 
position.  Mr.  Hollyday  is  married  and  has  one  child,  a  daughter.  He 
served  for  ten  years  as  vice  president  of  the  Mutual  Benefit  Associa- 
tion for  the  Third  division,  railway  mail  service,  and  has  been  an  officer 
and  director  of  the  Post  Office  Department  Immediate  Benefit  Associa- 
tion since  its  organization  in  1891. 


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